Gun-toting robber slips, drops loot

"He tried to grab everything. He didn't know what he was doing, but he just wanted to take something." Woolston Discounter dairy store manager Sujan Burra

A gun-wielding robber, possibly struggling to see with a jersey around his face, tripped leaving the store with both arms full of cigarette papers and lollies.

The man dropped the lot, scrambled back to the counter for a bag of potato chips – then ran.

CCTV footage shows the bungling robber enter the Woolston Discounter dairy on Ferry Rd, Christchurch at 8.56pm on Sunday.

The man rushes to the counter, aiming a gun at the employee who runs into a safe room at the back of the dairy. That’s when he ‘‘messed up’’.

The robber gathers what he can from the counter in both arms and heads for the door.

As he approaches the exit he drops all of his loot and slips.

He then runs back to the counter and takes one or two bags of potato chips.

The robber was last seen heading south-east on foot along Ferry Rd.

‘‘He messed up,’’ store manager Sujan Burra said.

‘‘He tried to grab everything. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he just wanted to take something.’’

Burra said it was the ninth time the store had been robbed in seven months.

He took ownership last September. It was robbed the day he started and every month since.

‘‘My employees don’t want to work at night after this.’’

Burra planned to have a meeting with employees to discuss what to do next. The options included installing a panic alarm and closing the store at 4pm or 5pm.

‘‘It just doesn’t make any sense for me [to keep it open].’’

The dairy is about 200 metres from the Woolston Night ‘n Day, which has been robbed nine times in a similar period.

Police appealed to members of the public who might have seen suspicious activity around the Woolston Dairy.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact police.