By Hayley Gastmeier
Three young men were threatened by a man with a knife at their family dairy in Carterton on Sunday night.
A 21-year-old man, who declined to be named, had been minding his aunt and uncle’s store, The Right Dairy, and his two cousins had been out the back in the adjoining house.
The offender, a man thought by police to be aged between 17 and 20, entered the High St South dairy at about 8.30pm.
He approached the 21-year-old, holding out a sharp kitchen knife “a bit longer than a finger”, and demanded the money from the till.
“When he came in the shop he was fiddling with his sleeve,” the victim said.
“He showed me the knife.
“I didn’t believe he would do something like that because I have seen him in here many times before.
“I was surprised to see he had a knife in his hand. It was a little bit scary.”
The victim behind the counter signalled for help to his cousin, who was in the lounge room behind him through a curtain.
The 17-year-old cousin next door saw the man with the knife on the CCTV cameras and ran to find his younger cousin, 16, who was studying for exams in his bedroom.
The student, whose parents own the dairy, said the offender must have thought his older cousin was alone in the store.
“[The offender] had looked around the shop to make sure nobody else was in there.”
The student then entered the store through the curtain behind the counter, joining his cousin.
“I threatened him with the police, I said ‘If you don’t go I will call the police’.
“He got quite mad and started swearing, he looked about 17-years-old.”
The student and his cousin started edging back through the curtain, ready to lock the door behind them.
“But then he then started approaching us at the counter and saw my other cousin so he realised there were three people and that’s when he got a bit scared, and then with the police threat he ran off.
“He was really casual about it; he was just wearing socks and a hoodie.
“The hoodie was pulled up over his head with a bucket hat underneath.”
The son of the dairy owners said he recognised the offender as someone who had been into the store multiple times – but usually not to buy something, just to swap coins.
He said the ordeal had been “scary” and as soon as the offender had run off down Moreton Rd the trio had called the police.
Nothing was taken from the store and nobody was injured.
Senior Sergeant Mike Sutton said the offender had not yet been located.
He said the man had dark skin and had been wearing a black hoodie.
“If anyone has seen anyone suspicious in and around that dairy at that time, or anything leading up to that, they should contact the police,” Mr Sutton said.
