The Porsche Cayenne SUV allegedly stolen by a 16-year-old boy from a Narrabundah driveway last week was recovered with a samurai-type sword under the driver's seat.
The owner of the vehicle said she had been with her recovered SUV as police were finalising the forensics procedures when one of the officers reached under the seat and found the sword.
"So I shudder to think now: was he carrying that weapon when he broke into our house?" she said.
A 16-year-old boy was later charged with the early morning theft of the car and other burglary and theft-related offences.
The victim said she had been upstairs, at the back of the family home, with her two young children waking up just before 6am when their family dog began to bark and growl very loudly.
It was suspected that this was when the intruder was inside the home. The car was stolen a short time later.
Following the burglary, police obtained CCTV footage from a petrol station in Casey that showed a 16-year-old boy refuelling the stolen vehicle, then driving away without paying.
The boy was identified from the service station footage by officers working on the repeat offender program TORIC and he was later arrested in Nicholls.
The stolen motor vehicle and bank-issued cards in the victim's name were also recovered.
The victim said her husband had left early that morning to go to the gym and hadn't locked the front door as the rest of the family was awake and preparing to start the day.
Little did she know that in that short window of time - less than 30 minutes - the boy allegedly had entered the house, grabbed her car keys, stolen her handbag, then made off with the Porsche.
The victim, who did not want to be identified, said it was astonishing to believe that someone as brazen like this would be walking the streets at 5.30am, watching and waiting for the opportunity to break into someone's home.
And her other big concern was finding the offender's weapon concealed in her car.
After her experience, she warned other home owners to be vigilant and keep their home secure at all hours
Operation TORIC (Targeting of Recividist Offenders In Canberra) recently racked up its 400th apprehension since it began in August 2022, resulting in more than 1100 charges being laid.
Of those taken into custody by TORIC's officers, Of those apprehended, 57 were the subject of good behaviour orders, 164 were on bail, 24 were on parole, and 60 were subject to arrest warrants.
To the intense frustration of police, many of those arrested were released on bail or orders, only to re-offend.
There have been 713 breaches of bail conditions recorded in the ACT in the past seven months, placing the territory well on target to exceed the 1106 breaches recorded during the 12 month recording period of 2022-23.
