By Brendan Rees
Hooded bandits have held up a Woolworths store in Lyndhurst on Sunday 9 February, terrorising customers and wielding a knife for those that tried to stop them.
The group of males burst into the Thompsons Road store before 9pm, stealing a trolley load of goods.
Police have been told a knife was allegedly produced and several customers attempted to intervene.
The group left the scene in a vehicle and have yet to be located at this stage.
Witness Daniel, who asked not to publish his surname, said he had just returned to his car in the carpark about 7.30pm to 8pm when heard a row break out.
“I heard a bit of a commotion behind me and they were taking a full trolley of shopping and running off without paying,” Daniel said.
The men, he said, were of African appearance and aged between 15 and 30 years of age, and had become aggressive when customers tried to intervene including punching and kicking.
“More customers from Woolworths came out and fought them off … as the fight started one of the guys ran off with the trolley back to the getaway car,” he said.
On person took a “blow to the head,” he added.
“I heard that they came back later on with a knife.
“It wasn’t really what I expecting on a Sunday night”.
Once he knew police had been called, Daniel got into car and drove around the area, checking if anyone had been injured.At one point, he said the group pushed the trolley out of the way, and a bit of it fell out “so they didn’t get away with everything”.
“It was pretty intense”.
No one required medical treatment.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.
