Knife-wielding butchers stop bandits
Two newsagents have described the terrifying moments when masked bandits rushed into their store swinging weapons wildly at them.
The robbery was underway at Riverstone when two brave butchers intervened and put up a serious fight.
At 8am, Claire Blunt was working at the till at the Riverstone newsagency when two armed men overwhelmed her with aggression.
The pair showed no regard for the elderly lady inside the store, or the elderly man, who had a machete raised to his throat.
Attendant Claire Blunt cowered as a thug with the crowbar demanded she open the register and "put the money in the bag".
"I was just screaming and screaming and screaming," Claire said.
As she filled the bandits' bag, her boss, John Emmery, emerged from a back room.
"He and his mate were smashing the front counter for absolutely no reason," Emmery said.
"He had our attention,"
Suddenly one of the men, armed with a meat cleaver, ran towards John, who retreated with his hands in the air.
Then something grabbed Mr Crowbar's attention – it was a man with a smaller knife, but a bigger heart.
It was butcher, Anthony Harvey charging at the bandit like an angry buffalo.
The machete-wielding man was also too scared to confront the butcher so he bolted out the back.
Almost comically, he struggled to get past a trolley, then struggled again to escape out the door, that was locked.
Butcher Anthony continued to hold the fort out the front, and the bandits left with nothing.
He says he heard a woman screaming and just ran to the newsagency straight away.
“That's all you can do when you hear someone screaming and they need your help," Anthony Harvey says.
Brother Ian says Anthony jumped over the counter “like Sally Pearson” and just hit the road running like Usain Bolt.
The cowardly criminals were caught driving around in their getaway car half an hour later, when a cluey cop from Mount Druitt arrested them.
"To have neighbours who look after each other, is something I think Riverstone's proud of," newsagent John Emmery said.
