Feisty newsagent fights off would-be robbers
A feisty newsagent has told how he took on three would-be robbers who threatened him with a knife.
Outnumbered and staring down a large blade, Greg Thomas chose to fight.
The 71-year-old was not prepared to back down when three young men entered his Box Hill North news agency armed with two knives.
"They said 'give us your money' and I said 'please go forth and multiply or something like that'," Greg said.
Greg had just opened for the day when he was set upon at around 7.30 this morning.
The trio who tried to rob him were wearing hoodies and had their faces covered.
Broad daylight and plenty of traffic on Elgar and Riversdale Roads was not enough to deter them.
Detective Senior Constable Damian Johnston told Seven News: "These sorts of situations can obviously go quite badly, so the shopkeeper's been lucky in this instance that there's been a bit of resistance on his part and the offenders have left, but it could have gone a whole lot worse."
Just minutes earlier, three young men, one of them with his face covered, were caught by security cameras acting suspiciously nearby.
In the CCTV video, obtained exclusively by Seven News, the bandits can then be seen walking towards the news agency moments before the attempted hold-up, which lasted less than ten seconds.
It is not the first time Greg has demonstrated his crime fighting skills and defied armed culprits.
Ten years ago four men attempted to rob his news agency, but failed and seven years ago he helped to track down a man who robbed a nearby milk bar.
Cigarette butts recovered from where the three young men were seen loitering will be tested for saliva.
There's no need to test for fingerprints near the till as they fled empty handed.
Greg said he is relieved he was able to walk away from the hold up.
