Victoria Police Investigate YouTubers For Trespassing Inside Dezi Freeman’s Thologolong Hideout

Victoria Police is investigating a report of trespass after YouTubers filmed inside the converted shipping container where fugitive gunman Dezi Freeman hid from police at Thologolong, in Victoria’s north-east.

“A YouTuber who filmed the secret hideout of double cop killer Dezi Freeman is being investigated, with his actions slammed for causing further trauma to victims' families”

1News

ABC reports that police shot Freeman dead on March 30 after his hideout at Thologolong was discovered, and that the investigation is tied to videos posted online showing the shipping container and surrounding property.

1News

The ABC account says police converged on the shipping container early on March 30, leading to a stand-off in which Freeman was ultimately shot, and it adds that the YouTubers published video filmed inside the container and around the property.

In the videos, the YouTubers said they accessed the property to retrieve a drone, and ABC describes the footage as showing “the squalid conditions inside the shipping container.”

ABC also quotes a Victoria Police spokesperson saying, “Police are investigating a report of a trespass at a property on Murray River Road in Thologolong on April 16,” and adds, “Investigators are aware of a video posted online in relation to the trespass and are investigating the circumstances.”

The ABC story further says the investigation remains ongoing, and it places the hideout on a remote property near the Murray River at Thologolong, in Victoria’s north-east.

Multiple outlets describe the YouTube footage as an inside look at the conditions inside Freeman’s container and the items left around the property.

1News says the content creator posted several videos showing himself and another man exploring the makeshift rural campsite and “the conditions Freeman lived in as he hid from police up until he was shot dead on March 30.”

9News

1News reports that the video shows items strewn everywhere, including tipped camping chairs, cooking utensils on tables, sunglasses and an overturned tinny with multiple bullet holes, and it adds that as he stepped into the shipping container, the YouTuber said he was hit was a strong stench.

The 1News story quotes the YouTuber saying, “Oh my God, I can't breathe in here. The chemicals. That was insane,” and it says inside the container he waded through filthy living quarters with bins, rolled up carpets, dress shirts hung up on a metal shelf, vitamin tablets and a wind-up radio.

AAP News repeats the same core description and includes the same quoted line about not being able to breathe, while also stating that shattered glass is littered the ground and that a battery set-up was connected to solar panels outside.

9News adds further detail, saying the footage is “the first the general public has seen from inside the shipping container itself,” and it describes shirts hanging by the door and an overturned boat outside that appears “riddled with bullet holes.”

Victoria Police’s investigation and Premier Jacinta Allan’s condemnation are central to how the episode is framed in the reporting.

“A YouTuber who filmed the secret hideout of double cop killer Dezi Freeman is being investigated, with his actions slammed for causing further trauma to victims' families”

AAP News

ABC says Victoria Police is investigating the trespass report connected to the video and that the investigation remains ongoing, and it quotes a Victoria Police spokesperson explaining that investigators are aware of the video posted online in relation to the trespass and are investigating the circumstances.

ABC also quotes Premier Jacinta Allan criticising the YouTubers, saying the video was “disrespectful,” and it ties her remarks directly to the families of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart.

Allan is quoted by ABC saying, “This sort of behaviour, it's disrespectful to the men and women of Victoria Police who lost two colleagues [and] the families of those men,” and the ABC story identifies Vadim De Waart-Hottart and Neal Thompson as killed on duty last August.

1News similarly reports that Premier Jacinta Allan condemned the YouTuber, declaring the slain officers' families and police colleagues deserved better, and it quotes her telling reporters on Tuesday, “Let's remember the victims here.”

AAP News repeats Allan’s “Let's remember the victims here” line and frames her comments as urging that “That is who everyone should be thinking of and not taking any action that further causes trauma, hurt and pain.”

The reporting situates the filming probe within the broader timeline of Dezi Freeman’s killings, his seven-month run, and the police operation that ended with his death.

ABC says Freeman had been hiding out in a converted shipping container after fatally shooting two police officers at his property at Porepunkah in August, and it states that Dezi Freeman was on the run for seven months before he was shot by police last month.

ABC

ABC also says police used non-lethal baton rounds and tear gas during the three-hour stand-off with Freeman, and it describes police converging on the shipping container early on March 30.

1News provides additional detail about the officers Freeman was wanted for, saying the 56-year-old fugitive was wanted over the fatal shootings of Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who were among a team of officers serving a warrant at his Porepunkah home in late August.

News.au adds a longer timeline, saying Freeman murdered Detective Leading Constable Neal Thompson and Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart and “seriously injured a third officer” at a property in Porepunkah on August 26, 2025, and it states Freeman fled into dense bushland and remained on the run for more than 216 days.

Across the accounts, the filming investigation is portrayed as occurring after the police operation that ended Freeman’s run, with the trespass report dated April 16 and the videos depicting the container where he hid before being killed by police on March 30.

The sources also describe the scope of police attention beyond the YouTubers, including the possibility of further investigation into the circumstances and earlier actions involving Freeman’s associates.

“fugitive gunman Dezi Freeman hid from police”

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

ABC says Victoria Police is investigating the report of trespass in relation to the video and that the investigation remains ongoing, and it notes that police are investigating reports of trespass after YouTubers filmed inside the shipping container where Freeman was shot dead.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

1News says Victoria Police are investigating the man for trespassing on the property, and it adds that the YouTuber has been contacted for comment while maintaining he spoke to “somebody across the road from the property” before he entered the site.

1News includes the YouTuber’s statement that “Trespass is the least of my worries,” and it quotes him saying, “Like I said, the person knew that I was there, so there is not one thing stressing me out about that whatsoever.”

1News also reports that Neil Sutherland said his brother Rick, who owned the property where Freeman was found, had no idea the fugitive was camped out there and had been in Tasmania at the time, and it says Sutherland’s brother was not a sovereign citizen and had reportedly contacted police to offer his assistance.

The same 1News account states that two of Freeman's associates were arrested and then released without charge in early April as police investigated the killer's movements.