Police are looking for a “friendly” armed robber who held up a Gympie service station on Monday night in an unusual “attack” with a boning knife.
The man, who was wearing dark clothing and had his face covered, walked into the Caltex Woolworths Service Station on Wickham St about 8.30pm with a knife at least 30cm long, Gympie CIB detective sergeant Rob Lowry said.
CCTV footage shows the store was empty of customers when the alleged offender placed the large knife on the counter and demanded cash from the attendant. The offender left with hundreds of dollars on foot.
Det Sgt Lowry said the attendant, a 26-year-old man, described the robber as young with a”younger type voice” and slim in build.
He was wearing a black “hoodie” jumper with a large rectangular or square light-coloured print on it, dark clothing, grey joggers and had a grey scarf or similar covering the bottom half of his face.
Sgt Det Lowry described the robbery as unusual, not only in nature but in frequency.
“There was no overuse of the knife, he wasn’t using it in a threatening manner – he just placed the knife in view to make its existence known.
“It was a demand for cash but it was sort of on a friendly level, that’s what makes it unusual,” he said.
He said police would be reviewing old solved and unsolved robberies at the service station to see if a pattern of offending could be generated.
“Any armed robbery of this nature is alarming to the community and also to the police and the business holders,” he said.
Extracted from Gympie Times