\u201cI had a daughter when I went in and my partner was pregnant with my son \u2026 I didn\u2019t meet him until he was two, two-and-a-half years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raz, who asked for his legal name not to be published for privacy reasons, grew up in the suburb of Lethbridge Park, near Mt Druitt in Sydney\u2019s west, hanging out with other \u201cstreet kids\u201d.<\/p>\n
He first got into serious trouble with the law at age 19, charged over a shooting in Willmot in October 2015, when his close friend was shot in the head but survived.<\/p>\n
Raz was charged with reckless wounding over the incident, which turned out to be a tragic accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to take it [the gun] off him because he was intoxicated,\u201d Raz explained. \u201cHe was my best mate at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A judge later handed him an 18-month suspended sentence but Raz said his life \u201cspiralled\u201d after that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kind of gave up hope, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was the main turning point because I thought that was it for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I thought \u2018there\u2019s no coming back from this, so f*** it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Costco robbery was the first time Raz had been in trouble with the law.<\/p>\n
The Costco robbery<\/p>\n
On April 11, 2018, Raz and another unidentified man broke into the warehouse to steal jewellery.<\/p>\n
But they ended up settling for iPhones, iPads and other items worth A$34,000 ($38,644.74) after their plans went awry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had just went to Costco one day and we were looking at the jewellery,\u201d he said in a video posted to social media.<\/p>\n
The room held electronics and alcohol. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one ring in there, A$110,000, there was another that was like 85 grand \u2026 there was watches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, \u2018bro, we were loaded\u2019. Not realising that no one would buy that ring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raz showed pictures from his old court documents of how the crew broke into the warehouse through a colourbond sheet wall.<\/p>\n
They then found their way into a merchandise pick-up area via an elevated walkway, he said.<\/p>\n
The target was a metal cabinet they believed held the jewellery, which was located next to shelves full of electronics. This is where things started to go wrong, Raz explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a grinder, we cut through this wire, I jumped down \u2026 there was a little sensor up there. I ducked and didn\u2019t make any motion on the sensor while I grinded away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly to realise that someone packed the wrong f***ing blade. It was not a cutting disc.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought because I was there cutting for ages the disc was wrong, but it was too late to leave and come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I just ran the risk. It was like a masonry tile cutting disc. And I was cutting away at this metal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty much through it, and the battery died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frustrated, he stepped back to try and kick the door handle and snap it off when his movement set off the sensor alarm.<\/p>\n
They decided to instead take some electronics and alcohol on the nearby shelves before making their escape.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only had a small bag like a Woolworths bag for the jewellery so we didn\u2019t plan to take this stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we weren\u2019t going empty-handed so we just loaded this stuff, jumped back up there \u2013 see you later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raz showed a picture taken of the haul, which included bottles of Belvedere vodka and Jim Beam, and a pile of iPhones and iPads.<\/p>\n
The haul of stolen items.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe iPhone X had just come out, it was a brand new phone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the dumbest things I did was decide to use one of them phones. I also gave my missus one and saved one just in case, which I ended up selling on Gumtree.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Gumtree sale came back to haunt Raz, he explained, as the photo of the phone posted on the marketplace included a snippet of a distinctive tattoo on his wrist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they [police] grabbed me they said, \u2018Can I look at your wrist?\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDumb a*** \u2026 didn\u2019t realise my tattoo was in it. Didn\u2019t realise I was going to get done, to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that gave them proof that I was the owner of that Gumtree account.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also showed how using his mobile phone as a torch during the robbery allowed police to link him to the case.<\/p>\n
CCTV cameras captured a sticker in the style of a motorcycle race number on the back of his phone case, another distinctive giveaway.<\/p>\n
Raz said he was later pulled over by police who seized his phone and found that it was stolen.<\/p>\n
Officers tried to get him to identify another man seen in footage linked to the robbery, but he refused.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were trying to get me to say his name,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sitting there s***ting bricks, I\u2019m getting done. I don\u2019t want to get my mate done \u2026 charge me for everything \u2026 I\u2019d rather one of us go to jail, the other stay out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m taking responsibility for this and leaving everyone else out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raz took an early guilty plea, and ended up being sentenced to three years\u2019 jail with a non-parole period of 22 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdiots, bro, and just rookie error dumb s***,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike the things you do when you\u2019re an idiot and you\u2019re thinking of \u2018money, crime\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do dumb s*** like that and you f*** yourself over.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Never too late\u2019<\/p>\n
Raz has amassed a large social media following across his various accounts, on which he posts videos talking openly about various stints in jail and past brushes with the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, I\u2019m going to jump on social media and I\u2019m going to try to get the word out there as to why I was doing these things, and maybe it might help somebody else.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I kind of started in hopes to help other younger people, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Raz now shares stories of his old life. Photo \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
He now has 62,000 TikTok followers and 10,000 on Instagram, something he still finds difficult to comprehend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mind-blowing because, like, to see all these people that essentially a lot of them look up to me and I\u2019m just like \u2018how?\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The father-of-two told news.com.au he now works in metal roofings and also owns the streetwear clothing line Ghettokids.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore all this bulls*** \u2026 I wasn\u2019t a big fan of working and earning legitimate money. I just wanted that fast, quick money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I had a lot of time to sit and think about it, and the fact that my partner was out here with my kids alone \u2026 she\u2019s stuck by me through all of that. I was like, \u2018I really need to make a difference and be a better man\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had a message to young people who find themselves caught up in crime \u2013 that despite how dark things might seem \u201cit\u2019s never too late to change\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just got to put your mind to it and go hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI had a daughter when I went in and my partner was pregnant with my son \u2026 I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4057,44267,138,10678,44264,181,8127,19959,12513,44265,44266,35689,111,139,69,675,44262,27517,17891,2737,7976,1361,613,44263,18840,3807],"class_list":["post-51301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-behind","tag-bungled","tag-business","tag-costco","tag-detail","tag-details","tag-end","tag-error","tag-failed","tag-gumtree","tag-listing","tag-mastermind","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-police","tag-razghetto","tag-robbery","tag-rookie","tag-star","tag-sydneys","tag-that","tag-tiktok","tag-tiny","tag-warehouse","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}