Kingston tradie allegedly has van stolen at gunpoint in daylight robbery

A South East Queensland tradie has recounted the dramatic moment he allegedly found himself with a “sawn-off shotty” in his face, with his work van taken from him in broad daylight.

A young Logan man has recounted the terrifying ordeal of allegedly having a gun barrel shoved in his face, with the alleged gunman set to face court today over a raft of charges.

Kingston man Vincent Becquigny had just woken up on Tuesday morning and was sitting in his Hyundai work van looking at his jobs for the day when police allege that all of a sudden he was approached by a man holding what appeared to resemble a sawn-off shotgun.

“Woke up like any other day, I got ready for work, popped in the car and was looking at my jobs for the day and all of a sudden, I’m staring into a barrel,” Mr Becquigny said.

Police will allege the man pointed the gun at Mr Becquigny and told him to get out of the vehicle.

A woman managed to make a video showing a man armed with what looks like a gun entering the van.

“I hesitated for a bit, I had a lot of thoughts going through my head, I was trying to suss out if the gun was real or seeing what the dude was all about.

“It looked pretty legit, like it had a timber handle. It looked like a sawn-off shotty.”

Mr Becquigny was thankful that a woman walking down the street recorded the ordeal.

A woman managed to make a video showing a man armed with what looks like a gun entering the van.

“I tried to pull my phone out to snap a video of the guy and he saw me do that, so he started demanding for my phone,” he said.

“He was like, ‘give me your phone. I need your phone and I was like, nah you don’t need it, bro, it’s all good, so put it back in my pocket.

“At the time, there was a chick walking to the bus stop along the path and I kept locking eyes with her, she was kind of double taking, and then I looked at her again and then she’s recording, so she managed to get the video.”

In the video, you can see a man standing at the door of a van and what appears to be a gun barrel poking outside the van door.

During the incident, Mr Becquigny said the alleged gunman apologised several times.

“He was like ‘I’m sorry brother, I’ve just had a bit of a day’, doesn’t really mean much when you are f – king staring into the face of a barrel,” he added.

“He was like ‘I’ll write down your number and I’ll tell you where I’m going to drop the car’.

“I was like ‘well, there’s pen and paper in the centre console and he couldn’t find it, so he took off.”

On Tuesday evening, the man allegedly used the gun to rob someone who was walking at Mount Warren Park, before he was arrested on Wednesday morning by specialist police, after the stolen van was seen parked at the 7/11 service station at Loganlea.

Mr Becquigny said he was informed on Wednesday that a man had been arrested and he could pick up his work van.

The van was left empty of tools and equipment worth about $2000.

“I was on a job yesterday and the police called me to tell me that they arrested a guy and my van could be picked up ready,” he said.

“I picked it up last night at 6pm, they’d taken all the stickers with our company name and number off, about $2000 worth of tools, customers, appliances that were going to be returned, as well as personal items, everything was gone really.

“When I got it back last night, I found other items like a laser in there, a coffee machine, and there was syringes and other gross stuff.

“Everything else that I and there was gone pretty much, the window screen cracked a bit and it was just pretty trashed.”

The van’s signage was also removed.

Police have charged a 39-year-old Eagleby man with two counts of robbery armed, enter dwelling and commit and unlawful use of motor vehicles aircraft or vessels and one count each of possessing dangerous drugs, carry/place dangerous goods in/on vehicle, unlawful possession of weapons category D/H/R weapon – short firearm in public.

He is set to appear in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court today.