A Gumtree listing detail led police to RazGhetto, mastermind of a failed Sydney warehouse robbery. Photo / Getty Images
In the end, it was a tiny detail in a Gumtree listing that led police to the mastermind behind a bungled warehouse robbery in Sydney’s west.
The man, known as RazGhetto on social media, recounted the candid story of a jewellery heist at Marsden Park Costco, showing how a series of “dumb” mistakes led police right to him.
He told news.com.au that although he was “not proud” of the incident, there were no regrets “because if it wasn’t for that I don’t think I would be the person I am today”.
“Because that was the one that sent me inside [to jail],” he said.
“While I was in there it just opened my eyes to so much stuff.
“I had a daughter when I went in and my partner was pregnant with my son … I didn’t meet him until he was two, two-and-a-half years old.”
Raz, who asked for his legal name not to be published for privacy reasons, grew up in the suburb of Lethbridge Park, near Mt Druitt in Sydney’s west, hanging out with other “street kids”.
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.
Raz was charged with reckless wounding over the incident, which turned out to be a tragic accident.
“I was just trying to take it [the gun] off him because he was intoxicated,” Raz explained. “He was my best mate at the time.”
A judge later handed him an 18-month suspended sentence but Raz said his life “spiralled” after that night.
“I just kind of gave up hope, to be honest with you.
“I think that was the main turning point because I thought that was it for me.
“And I thought ‘there’s no coming back from this, so f*** it’.”
The Costco robbery was the first time Raz had been in trouble with the law.
On April 11, 2018, Raz and another unidentified man broke into the warehouse to steal jewellery.
But they ended up settling for iPhones, iPads and other items worth A$34,000 ($38,644.74) after their plans went awry.
“We had just went to Costco one day and we were looking at the jewellery,” he said in a video posted to social media.
“There was one ring in there, A$110,000, there was another that was like 85 grand … there was watches.
“We thought, ‘bro, we were loaded’. Not realising that no one would buy that ring.”
Raz showed pictures from his old court documents of how the crew broke into the warehouse through a colourbond sheet wall.
They then found their way into a merchandise pick-up area via an elevated walkway, he said.
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.
“We had a grinder, we cut through this wire, I jumped down … there was a little sensor up there. I ducked and didn’t make any motion on the sensor while I grinded away,” he said.
“Only to realise that someone packed the wrong f***ing blade. It was not a cutting disc.
“I thought because I was there cutting for ages the disc was wrong, but it was too late to leave and come back.
“So I just ran the risk. It was like a masonry tile cutting disc. And I was cutting away at this metal.
“I was pretty much through it, and the battery died.”
Frustrated, he stepped back to try and kick the door handle and snap it off when his movement set off the sensor alarm.
They decided to instead take some electronics and alcohol on the nearby shelves before making their escape.
“We only had a small bag like a Woolworths bag for the jewellery so we didn’t plan to take this stuff,” he said.
“But we weren’t going empty-handed so we just loaded this stuff, jumped back up there – see you later.”
Raz showed a picture taken of the haul, which included bottles of Belvedere vodka and Jim Beam, and a pile of iPhones and iPads.
“The iPhone X had just come out, it was a brand new phone,” he said.
“One 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.”
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.
“When they [police] grabbed me they said, ‘Can I look at your wrist?’,” he said.
“Dumb a*** … didn’t realise my tattoo was in it. Didn’t realise I was going to get done, to be honest.
“But that gave them proof that I was the owner of that Gumtree account.”
He also showed how using his mobile phone as a torch during the robbery allowed police to link him to the case.
CCTV cameras captured a sticker in the style of a motorcycle race number on the back of his phone case, another distinctive giveaway.
Raz said he was later pulled over by police who seized his phone and found that it was stolen.
Officers tried to get him to identify another man seen in footage linked to the robbery, but he refused.
“They were trying to get me to say his name,” he said.
“I’m sitting there s***ting bricks, I’m getting done. I don’t want to get my mate done … charge me for everything … I’d rather one of us go to jail, the other stay out.
“I’m taking responsibility for this and leaving everyone else out of it.”
Raz took an early guilty plea, and ended up being sentenced to three years’ jail with a non-parole period of 22 months.
“Idiots, bro, and just rookie error dumb s***,” he said.
“Like the things you do when you’re an idiot and you’re thinking of ‘money, crime’.
“You do dumb s*** like that and you f*** yourself over.”
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.
“I thought, I’m going to jump on social media and I’m going to try to get the word out there as to why I was doing these things, and maybe it might help somebody else.
“So I kind of started in hopes to help other younger people, you know?”
He now has 62,000 TikTok followers and 10,000 on Instagram, something he still finds difficult to comprehend.
“It’s mind-blowing because, like, to see all these people that essentially a lot of them look up to me and I’m just like ‘how?’,” he said.
The father-of-two told news.com.au he now works in metal roofings and also owns the streetwear clothing line Ghettokids.
“Before all this bulls*** … I wasn’t a big fan of working and earning legitimate money. I just wanted that fast, quick money,” he said.
“Now 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 … she’s stuck by me through all of that. I was like, ‘I really need to make a difference and be a better man’.”
He had a message to young people who find themselves caught up in crime – that despite how dark things might seem “it’s never too late to change”.
“You just got to put your mind to it and go hard.”
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