Sarina hotel worker recounts moment man threatens him with tyre iron

A man wielding a tyre iron allegedly ambushed a Sarina bottle shop in broad daylight demanding they hand over ‘everything’. Young Jack reveals why he wasn’t too surprised.

When a customer requested everything in the bottle-o, Jack Bennett thought nothing of it.

Then he spotted the tyre iron.

The 20 year old was working at the Tandara Hotel Motel in Sarina about midday on Monday when a man allegedly held up the store taking off with cash and liquor.

“I just got robbed really,” the Sarina local said.

“Two blokes pulled up in the car, the passenger seat bloke, he was full asleep.

“Then one came out and I asked him what he was after.

“He said, ‘everything’.

“I wasn’t too surprised, a couple of old fellas come through and say it as a bit of a joke so I didn’t think it was too weird or anything but then I saw a tyre iron in his left hand so I thought, righto, he actually is here for everything.”

Mr Bennett said the man went behind the counter and demanded he hand over all the cash in the register before taking off with two bottles of spirits.

“I was pretty calm, I wasn’t too worried about it or anything,” he said.

“He wasn’t aggressive or anything to me so I just did what he told me to do.

“From his body language, he was just desperate for cash … I just kept my hands out of my pockets.

“As he was hopping back in his car and he was leaving, he said to me, ‘Oh at least give me five minutes mate’.”

Mr Bennett, who was back at work the next day, said he immediately rang the authorities and gave them details of the man’s licence plate.

Police were able to track down the alleged offenders, arresting them about six hours after deploying stingers at Alligator Creek just south of Townsville.