A THIEF who threatened to run-down the manager of a local bottleshop in a vehicle is still on the loose after fleeing the premises with a carton of beer on Tuesday afternoon.
Commercial Hotel bottle shop manager Luke Stewart was entering in stocktake details for the end of the financial year at around 12.30pm when he noticed a man on the security camera stealing from the store.
“I looked up and saw a man walk in, grab a carton of XXXX Gold and walk out,” Mr Stewart said.
“I walked out and asked him what was going on and he told me he had money in his car to pay for it.”
When Mr Stewart asked the man to come back and pay for it, he entered his car and locked the doors.
“I walked up to it and told him there was no point stealing the carton because he was on camera,” Mr Stewart said.
“He just told me he didn’t care and warned me to get out of the way or he would run me over.”
Mr Stewart said it was the first time he had ever felt seriously threatened after working in the bottle shop industry for 18 years.
“It was the first time I have felt threatened, that’s why I stepped back because you could just see that he was serious about running me over,” he said.
“Usually when you confront people they tend to drop it and run or they just stop.”
Bottleshops are vulnerable to theft with Mr Stewart revealing that he witnesses around four to five thefts a year at his store.
“We get thefts all the time, it wasn’t that long ago that we had a little 14 year old boy run in and grab a bottle before running off again,” he said.
“Normally it is pretty good because there are eight cameras here, so if you are going to try it, you will get caught pretty quick.”
Mr Stewart described the frustration when the perpetrators are not caught, leading to stores not being appropriately compensated.
“It is extremely frustrating because we only make two or three dollars on a carton of beer, so when someone steals one it is a lot of money to make back,” he said.
“You have to sell a lot of cartons of beer to make money.”
A police spokesperson was unable to be contacted for comment yesterday, however no arrests have been made public.
Anyone with information about the matter should provide details online at crimestopperssa.com.au or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
