Shopkeeper scares off armed robber
18 June 2018
By Tom
Kitchin
Old Town
Store owner Utia Lafita holds the saucer she used to scare off a would-be
robber. Photo: Tom Kitchin
Cromwell
dairy owner Utia Lafita says she was not afraid during an attempted armed robbery at her shop in Old
Cromwell on Friday night, she was just "very, very angry".
"I
don’t know what happened. The people here are very friendly, this was just out
of the blue."
About 8pm on
Friday, Mrs Lafita, the owner of Old
Town Store in Achil St, was minding her shop when a male dressed in dark
clothing and wearing a balaclava walked in.
"He was
covered from head to toe, it was only his eyes I could see. As a human being, I
thought he was just very cold."
Mrs Lafita
(64) assumed he was going to buy something, as he walked over to the chocolates
at one side of the counter and began to stare at them.
"Less
than a minute later, he turned around and said ‘Give me your money’."
She saw what
looked like a gun in his hands.
"I
leant over the counter and said ‘What?’. My heart was bubbling."
Mrs Lafita
tried to find something to throw at him, but all she had at the counter was a
small saucer.
"I held
[the saucer] up and he ran out and around the corner."
Mrs Lafita
was uninjured and did not give the man any money.
But she
could not work out how to use her phone. Luckily, her daughter arrived about 10
minutes later and called the police.
Mrs Lafita
said her family had been in Cromwell for three years and this was the first
kind of robbery she had witnessed.
She thanked
the Cromwell community for their support.
"The
next morning, I opened up the shop and
the first person was so upset and unhappy and asked what happened."I feel
so honoured. They feel what I’ve been through. They are caring people."
A police
spokeswoman said the man could have been holding a small firearm or an
imitation firearm.
• Cromwell
police (03) 445-1999; Crimestoppers 0800 555-111.
