Newnham, Mowbray and Launceston have reports of stolen then burnt out cars

At least six cars have been found burnt out after being stolen from the Launceston area in the past month.

Some of the cars were eventually found around Nunamara and Ravenswood- a known graveyard for wreckages of smouldering vehicles - leaving their owners to count the costs of the heartless acts of theft.

While other condemned carcasses have begun to spill over onto the streets of Newnham and into South Launceston.

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Twenty-one-year-old Jordan King from Newnham was woken on New Year's Day by a wrap on her front door from two police officers.

Police told her that a car registered in her name had been spotted breaking the law earlier in the morning, but as far as she had known prior it was sitting in her driveway.

"It was stolen in Newnham from our driveway this morning. Police knocked on our door at five because [our car] was evading police in Ravenswood," she said.

Ms King said it seemed like the theft was calculated as her spare car keys had gone missing just days prior.

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"We don't know how but the keys went missing two days ago. We figured my daughter had just hidden them," she said.

"They waited two days before they came and took it and they were wearing gloves and masks to cover their face."

In the car there were two baby seats and a double pram used by her children, aged 19 months and three months.

Five hours after she found out her car had been stolen it was found burnt out at Evandale by Tasmania Fire Service, who alerted police.

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The day before, in the early hours of New Year's Eve, another car was stolen from the area.

The owner, who chose not to be named, said the car was stolen from their house at Mowbray, just minutes away from Ms King's house.

They said the theft was reported to police who found the car smouldering on a road at Newnham, about 5 kilometres from where it was stolen.

Ms King said the theft of her car, combined with the sheer amount of cars that had been stolen and torched in the area, left her at her wits end. "It's deflating and annoying, really. It just sucks that people do this," she said.

"It's very worrying. We are considering moving ... It's really frustrating."

In November 2019 a deliberately set car fire at Stoney Head in the state's North East caused a bushfire that burned for almost three weeks and scorched over 238 hectares of land.

Tasmania Police was contacted for comment but had not responded by time of publication.

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