Robbers hit dairy as owner put up barrier
A dairy owner’s son was playing football in the backyard when he saw people wearing masks, hoodies and caps get out of a car.
He thought one of them was holding a crowbar.
Willa Ly ran to his father, Chai Ly, the owner of the Hope Store and Takeaways, near Nelson.
He told Ly: ‘‘Someone is coming to rob us’’.
Ly was building a security barrier for the front counter when his son ran to the back of the shop to find him.
It was only a week since the shop was last targeted.
‘‘I thought it was a joke,’’ Ly said.
Then he saw the seriousness in his son’s eyes.
Ly picked up his young daughter Monica and went to check if the car his son talked about was there.
When he walked to the front of the shop he was confronted by two teenagers. The shop was open.
‘‘I shouted at them ’What are you doing here?’ and they ran off,’’ Ly said. ‘‘They were ready to come in.’’
The alleged offenders aged 13 and 16 jumped in the nearby car. He watched as they headed toward Brightwater and then asked his wife Jenny to call the police. He had memorised the number plate.
‘‘I don’t know what they were thinking, what they were doing.’’
Ly said the recent targeting of dairies around the region was worrying.
Last week, Hope Store and Takeaway was broken into after hours. Ly saw the thieves on the store’s CCTV footage and called police.
They attempted to break into the tobacco cabinet but were unsuccessful due to the security system.
‘‘I am feeling quite nervous, Nelson is not going to be safe any more.’’ ‘‘It is scary,’’ Jenny said. She held concerns for her family after the store was targeted about September last year, again in March this year, last week and on Sunday.
The only consolation was the last two incidents ended in arrests, she said.
In the eight years the Lys have owned the Hope Store and Takeaway it has been hit with four burglaries.
The most recent attempted aggravated burglary resulted in a carload of teenagers being arrested 80km away after police laid road spikes to stop their car.
A 16-year-old was arrested and two 13-year-olds were referred to Youth Aid after police responded to reports that people had attempted to rob the store.
Police then received a call the offenders’ vehicle had allegedly been used in a drive-off at a Wakefield petrol station and offenders had failed to pay for $70 worth of fuel.