UPDATE
The community has rallied to support an Altona bottle shop robbed at knifepoint on Friday night.
A man walked into Savvy Cellars in Civic Parade about 8pm as a female attendant was preparing to close. He produced a knife and demanded cash and it’s believed he was given some before he fled.
Star Weekly was on the scene as a police officer and his sniffer dog jumped front yard fences to follow the crook’s scent along the northern side of Civic Parade.
The pizza shop next door was bustling with customers, but one worker said nobody realised there had been a robbery.
Savvy Cellars owner Jenny Hu said the bottle shop attendant was too shaken to return to work at the weekend.
She said that following Star Weekly’s report on Facebook, the community had rallied to support the family business she took on three years ago. One customer brought in pink roses on Saturday, while other customers had bought double their usual amount.
“A lot of customers have come here and asked me things,” Ms Hu said. “One customer said, ‘I hope it doesn’t happen again’. I’m very thankful for that.”
The robbery shocked shopkeepers in the tiny strip near the corner of Millers Road.
A milkbar owner, who did not want to be named, said shopkeepers were always wary of being robbed, but Friday night’s hold-up was unusual for the strip.
“It happened here once before, about 20 years ago,” he said.
No one was injured in Friday’s robbery and the offender is still at large.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000
