Nearly $40,000 in cash and cigarettes was stolen from a Narooma petrol station on Thursday, June 17.
Just before 4am the front doors of the Narooma BP off the Princes Highway were allegedly broken with a crow bar, before the thief began helping themselves to cigarette cartons and cash from the till.
Owner Akash Sharma said it was the second break in at the store in a year.
“They took all the cash from the till as well as cigarettes which would have been to the value of about $19,000,” he said.
“Then they smashed my counter in the back and stole around $15,000 cash from an unlocked drawer.”
Unfortunately, only one CCTV camera was working at the time and did not capture the full extent of the break in.
“From the footage it shows just one person, but there could have been more,” Mr Sharma said.
The break in follows an incident at Club Dalmeny earlier this week, where two men armed with a gun and machete forced entry and threatened a female staff member.
Further south, a string of thefts and break ins at council-owned facilities in the Bega Valley could lead to heightened security measures, including the end of cash payments at the shire’s tips.
Narooma Police Station was contacted about the break in and a spokesperson said it was too early to comment on the details.
“We are in the preliminary stages of an investigation and still looking over the CCTV footage as well as taking forensic evidence,” the spokesperson said.
Yet Mr Sharma said despite alerting the police to the incident just after 5am, by 10am he was still waiting for police officers to arrive.
“They told me not to serve anyone or let anyone behind the counter, and I don’t know how long they will take to arrive,” he said.
“I want to let everyone know these [break ins] are happening in Narooma so they can keep an eye out and keep safe.”
Extracted from Bega District News