Swift end to hostage crisis
Mum doesn’t let a knife ordeal get in the way of her daughter’s birthday treat, writes Maddison Northcott.
Laura Wheeler sensed the man appear from behind her, felt him wrap his arm around her neck and hold a knife to her throat. She thought it was a tasteless joke.
Then he started talking in her ear.
‘‘People are trying to hurt me, but I won’t hurt you’’, he told her. It was then she started to panic, and her teenage daughter Jess screamed out for help.
For the next 90 minutes, Wheeler was the man’s hostage, as they stood near the Burger King in the food court of the Westfield Manukau Shopping Centre. Her ordeal only ended when the man dropped the knife to the floor and surrendered to police negotiators.
When it was over, Wheeler gave her statement to police. Then she and Jess went straight to Rainbow’s End amusement park, as planned, and then to the Taylor Swift concert at Mt Smart Stadium. The trip was Jess’ 14th birthday present, and nothing was going to ruin it – not even her mother being held at knifepoint.
‘‘[Jess] deserved Wheeler said.
The pair had flown in from their home in Christchurch early on Friday morning. They were queuing for breakfast at Burger King in the mall when the man appeared ‘‘out of nowhere’’ and grabbed Wheeler. It was early and most shops in the mall hadn’t opened. Only a handful of food court staff saw what happened.
Wheeler quickly realised wasn’t a prank.
‘‘Even though he said he wouldn’t hurt me I just didn’t know what to think,’’ she said.
‘‘It took a fair while to even process it.
‘‘I didn’t know what had led him to be desperate enough to get into a situation like that.’’
A food court worker told the Sunday Star-Times the alleged attacker was agitated when he entered the food court and appeared drunk and disoriented.
Wheeler, now back home in Christchurch and counting her blessings, wasn’t so sure.
‘‘He wasn’t drunk. to
Igo,’’ it don’t know what was going on with him but he was all there.’’
The drama ended only when the man gave himself up and let Wheeler go, after 40 minutes negotiating with police.
He was arrested without incident and appeared in the Manukau District Court yesterday charged with kidnapping.
He has been granted interim name suppression and was remanded in custody. super-fan. Barry then surprised Gracie with a ticket to the big show.
‘‘It was pretty exciting,’’ says Barry, ‘‘because I hadn’t told Gracie that we were going to meet Taylor. That was a pretty special moment actually, her jaw dropped and it was like she had misheard me, and then she was like, ‘Really? Really? Will I get to touch her? Will I get to talk to her? I might cry!’
‘‘She was a bit worried about crying, actually, because she was going to get so excited.’’
After the private meeting, when the pair got to their seats they found they were near Swift’s mum Andrea and Gracie got a photo with her too.