Young service attendant threatened with machetes
A service station worker has spoken of his terror after being tricked into letting four armed robbers into his shop.
They threatened the young attendant with machetes and wooden poles, before making off with the till.
CCTV footage shows one of the men, appearing nervous and pretending to be a customer while waiting to be let in to the Lynbrook service station on the South Gippsland Highway.
The doors open and his hiding accomplices pounce waving machetes and makeshift weapons.
One wedges a bin in the front door while the others targeted the terrified attendant.
“Four of them came…one of them just jumped into the counter….and he scared me. He want money,” said the worker.
Detective Sergeant Ivan Bobetic from Victoria Police said: “The one with the machete has jumped through the metal screen and actually made his way behind the counter to the victim”.
At 2.40am on Friday the doors had been locked for exactly this reason: to prevent would-be thieves getting in.
But the attendant was got off guard.
“They just shouted to do it fast,” he said.
The men took off with the contents of the till.
“We really are reaching out to the public,” said Det. Sgt. Bobetic.
“The CCTV footage is of very good quality and we are hopeful of a quick resolve in relation to identifying the suspects.”
Shortly after police released the footage one of the men handed himself in.
The attendant was so shaken he could not return to work for seven days. While he is now back behind the counter, he says it will be a long time before he feels safe again.
“Yeah I am very scared at that time, I don’t know what’s going on actually,” he told 7News.
