A troubled hotelier is appealing for help to find the thief who stole $30k in a suspicious early Sunday morning break-in at regional local the Junee Hotel.
Around 4.15am on 21 June CCTV captured a man pacing the footpath outside the pub. Soon after, the power was cut to the building, killing the cameras. The perpetrator gained entry and took cash and coins from the office.
A builder by trade, a few years back James Tracey did some work at the Red Cow Hotel, on the corner of Junction and Crawley Streets. Having already contemplated purchase of a different pub, around three and a half years ago he agreed to a 10-year lease of the operation.
Tracey is very concerned about the robbery, particularly as the person entered with no obvious signs of force, presumably because they had a key.
They knew to kill the power and appeared to know where money was kept – including $10k of the total being money accumulated in the punters club, which was stashed where most staff would not know and Tracey will need to repay.
“It’s definitely a planned-out or inside job,” he told PubTIC. “They also knew where the key to the office was kept.”
Since taking on the pub, Tracey has at times supplemented revenue with building projects and explains he has had to trust staff with access to certain things, including working cash for the business.
He realised that the CCTV had similarly caught a person outside the hotel acting suspiciously at roughly the same time, a week earlier, possibly scoping the situation before they struck.
Tracey has released the CCTV footage in the hope someone may recognise the person, their clothing or their distinctive walk. He is asking anyone with a camera onto the road to check between about 1am and 5am for a vehicle or person, in the hope it may help establish movements of those responsible.
“It’s going to be tough to recover from this,” he says.
“I’d really love to find the person on camera and ask ‘how did you get a key?’
“I just feel so violated … I’d almost prefer they’d kicked the door down.” Anyone with information is asked to contact Junee Police or Crime Stoppers (1800 333 000) – or call James Tracey (0457 484 635).
