REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Tuesday, July 2, 1985

WHEN two armed, masked men burst through the front door of a Palm Beach restaurant, many customers at first thought they were singing telegram characters.

But when the two balaclava clad men fired two shots into the ceiling and narrowly missed shooting a waitress, they became nervous.

Owner of Zen’s restaurant in Eight Ave, Zenon Wroble, his voice still shaky, recounted the drama.

“It was about 8.20pm on Saturday. The restaurant was full, about 25 people, when two balaclava masked men burst through the front door. One had a .22 rifle and one had a pistol,” said Mr Wroble.

“At first many customers thought it was flim flam men because they seem to come in all forms now.

“But they fired a couple of shots at the ceiling and said ‘wallets on the tables’ or something like that.

“It was horrifying. A few of the customers said they couldn’t have been more than 16 or 18 years old.”

Mr Wroble believed the two teenage bandits were jumpy and nervous and ran when he and the waitress went for help.

“They just grabbed the wallets on the table and ran,” he said.

“The police were here within a few minutes.

“We then got on with serving the meals and finished the night off.

“Most of the customers stayed on for their meals.”

Police said they were searching for two youths aged 16-18 years.

Both were described as tall and slim and were wearing balaclavas and faded blue jeans.