
In the middle of Victoria's 112 day lockdown last winter, Michelle's* cousin Kevin* wasn't trying to hide the fact he was flouting the rules.
As the state recorded hundreds of new COVID cases daily, he was posting on social media while out and about.
He was blatantly ignoring the 5km radius rule, the four reasons to leave the house and the 8pm curfew.
Michelle had, for her own sanity, initially just blocked Kevin and his immediate family from her social media feeds so she didn't have to witness their blatant disregard for public health.
But when the rule breaking started to involve her elderly grandparents, she saw red.
Sidenote: A big thankyou to masks....post continues after video.
"I was on my daily walk. My grandparents live a couple of streets away from me, and I saw his car parked in their driveway," she told Mamamia.
Kevin lived about 30km away from the area, and as Michelle found out later, he'd decided to pop over for lunch.
"My grandma also called my Dad to tell him that my cousin had come over if he wanted to come over too, which really made me feel like my cousin was taking advantage of their kindness and also lack of understanding about the rules and restrictions as English is not their first language, so at times they misunderstood what was and wasn't okay," she explained.
So Michelle anonymously dobbed him in to authorities. While she didn't provide his name, she did supply his registration and described his car in her submission.
"I was so angry at him. I was so furious that he could potentially put my grandparents at risk. I didn't feel guilty at all (about reporting him), although it did cause an argument with my parents who thought I shouldn't have done it," she told Mamamia.
Michelle says nothing, disappointingly, came of her report and Kevin never found out that she'd dobbed him in. But if she had her time all over again, she wouldn't change a thing.
"While I agree that the lockdowns were difficult for everyone, and we all missed our family, I still don't think it's an excuse to put elderly people at risk for your own selfish reasons."
Close to 38,000 fines were handed to Victorians for breaching coronavirus restrictions since the start of the pandemic until March 31 this year, according to crime statistics.
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