Masked man confronts dairy owner
A Bluff dairy owner, fearing for her safety, escaped over the counter after a masked man entered her store saying he needed money and cigarettes.
White Tops dairy owner Joji Katon was back behind her shop counter only a less than a day after a man robbed her store at the weekend.
Katon said it was sometime after 4pm on Saturday when a man entered her shop wearing a balaclava and carrying bags.
The man approached the counter and said he needed money and cigarettes, she said.
At first, she did not realise what was happening and asked him why he needed money, Katon said.
Then the man came around behind the counter and she panicked and jumped over the counter and ran outside screaming, she said.
Outside she found a customer who had just been in her dairy waiting in their car and they asked her what was wrong, Katon said.
The robber ran out of her dairy then headed up Henderson St then down Barrow St, she believed.
The police arrived at her store about 10 minutes later, she said.
Katon was unsure what was taken but did find a pouch of Drum tobacco on the floor which she believed had been dropped by the robber.
No money had been taken from the cash register, Katon said.
Katon said she had only just returned to work after having a holiday.
‘‘I thought it was just a normal day. I could believe it.’’
In the 14 years she had owned the dairy there had been only one other incident where someone had taken cigarettes while her son was away from the counter, Katon said.
Henderson St resident Shona Jamieson said she had been out painting her fence that afternoon and saw someone running past her house toward Barrow St.
A young man ran past her house with his head looking down, which she thought was odd, Jamieson said.
Her dog, which was shut in her car nearby, barked at the man and gave him a bit of a fright, she said.
It was only when the police turned up soon after she started to get suspicious, Katon said.
Police are investigating the incident and anyone with information is urged to contact them.