By Victoria Stone-Meadows
A bottle shop in Cranbourne North has been robbed for the second time in under a week, with staff members attacked by armed thugs on Tuesday night.
Police are seeking witnesses to the violent robbery that occurred at a liquor store on William Thwaites Boulevard shortly after 9pm.
Three male offenders with their faces covered and wearing hoodies entered the store armed with a gun and a knife.
One of the store attendants suffered multiple stab wounds to his upper body during the robbery and was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Another staff member at the store was also assaulted and suffered minor injuries to his face.
The thugs left the store empty-handed and fled the scene on foot in an unknown direction.
Investigating Officer Chris Nieuwesteeg from the Southern Metro Regional Crime Team said the thieves left behind a valuable piece of evidence.
“A knife was located at the scene that has possibly been used in the attack,” he said.
The incident echoes a robbery from Thursday 1 June, where two males entered the same bottle shop with similar face coverings, armed with a knife just before 6.30pm.
On this occasion the robbers threatened the shop attendant but did not physically attack anyone and managed to steal cash and alcohol from the store.
While police have not ruled out the two crimes being linked, they cannot say for certain that the two robberies were carried out by the same people or are connected.
Gary Kear from the Casey Crime Investigation Unit said the incidents were remarkably similar, but police didn’t know for sure yet if the robberies were connected.
“It was the same place with the robberies done a week apart and under a similar scenario,” he said.
“There are parallels but no obvious connections.”
