A Berrimah pub and staff member are recovering after a cunning bandit executed a well-planned robbery, wielding a sword.
Last Sunday night the manager of the Hidden Valley Tavern was confronted in the office by a masked man holding a 50 centimetre sword, who demanded money and threatened to go to the terrified woman’s home.
The hotel told PubTIC CCTV showed the bandit first hid in the toilets for an hour, before exiting and hiding strategically in corners as the manager did her walk-around to check the venue at closing time.
Suffering from the experience, the well-loved manager is “off until she is ready to come back”, and a collection for her has been started by locals and regulars.
Police used the dog squad to track the offender across the Stuart Highway, before the trail was lost in the Berrimah industrial area. They have issued CCTV footage of the offender in the hope someone saw the man.
“It appears from initial inquiries that it would have taken a degree of planning,” Serious Crime Unit detective and acting senior sergeant Karl Day told NT News.
