Worker describes attempted robbery
THE woman working in the Pine Hill Dairy during an attempted robbery on Thursday evening has described the fearful minute she spent facing down the assailant as he brandished a weapon.
Police were still searching last night for the masked man who entered the dairy in Pine Hill Rd shortly before 7pm on Thursday and allegedly demanded money before leaving, the fifth robbery or attempted robbery of a Dunedin dairy in less than two months.
The dairy remained closed yesterday as officers conducted a scene examination and reviewed CCTV footage.
A young woman, who was working in the dairy at the time and asked to remain anonymous, said the man entered her store with his face ‘‘really well covered’’.
His face was so well covered she had difficulty understanding his demands, as he repeatedly pointed his weapon at the till, then back at the woman as she stood screaming in her store, paralysed with fear.
‘‘I couldn’t move.’’
About one minute later the man fled. ‘‘Maybe my screaming was too powerful.’’
The woman would not be drawn on the nature of the weapon the man presented, saying she did not want to alarm the community.
However, she said she understood the man was someone from outside the Pine Hill area.
Police appealed for sightings of a white Subaru in the Pine Hill Rd area between 6pm and 7pm on Thursday night.
The incident came after police last month arrested three people in Ocean Grove in relation to a string of aggravated robberies targeting Dunedin dairies.
That followed an investigation into three robberies targeting dairies since June: the Musselburgh Food Centre on June 7, the Stadium Store in St Kilda on July 15 and the Elgin Food Market in Maryhill on July 16.
On July 26, a masked man also entered the Dundas Corner Dairy in North Dunedin and tried to rob it, but fled on foot soon after.
Dunedin police (03) 4714800, Crimestoppers 0800 555111.