Riverhills cafe owner has no regrets ahead of move to Tasmania

This Brisbane woman only opened her small business two years ago, and she’s already been burgled and hit with an axe. She even gave the bandits a spray. Now she’s leaving Brisbane.

Owner of All Things Tasmanian Sam Baxter in her shop at Riverhills.

When armed robbers held up Sam Baxter’s coffee shop with an axe, they probably didn’t expect her to lay a guilt trip on them as they left.

“I yelled: ‘would your mother be proud of you?!’ I was so angry,” she said.

Only moments earlier, two men had entered her shop - one wielding an axe - before they stole her laptop and till.

“I have a 19-year-old son and it would break my heart to think that he would do something like that,” she said.

CYCLIST SPOTTED USING HIS NOODLE IN BRISBANE

'I WOKE UP WITH A SNAKE LICKING MY FACE'

WOMAN PUNCHED IN SHOPPING CENTRE BAG SNATCH

“Go get a job. I’m out here every single morning working my butt off so I can live in a nice house and supply everything for my child. Get your own job instead of pinching my stuff.”

During the heist in June last year - the feisty shop owner put her hand over her till to try and stop them stealing it.

“I said ‘look mate, I’ll just give you the money - you don’t have to take my whole till’, and then he hit my hand with the axe. I ran after them and then they took off in their car,” she said.

Owner of All Things Tasmanian Sam Baxter in her shop at Riverhills.

The whole event only lasted eight seconds, but Ms Baxter still carries the emotional scars.

“I went to counselling and I’ve been on anti-anxiety drugs,” she said.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you.”

In the two years since she opened her boutique coffee shop - All Things Tasmanian at Riverhills - she’s been robbed twice, including an overnight break in earlier this year.

But despite all of that, Ms Baxter doesn’t regret starting up the shop for a moment.

“I love it. It was the best move I ever made,” she said.

Inside All Things Tasmanian at Riverhills.

“The community around here is just amazing. Anything that we do, they just rally behind everybody no matter what the situation is.”

But this month, Ms Baxter will leave her shop and move to Tasmania to be with her partner.

“I’ve put somebody in here to run the shop for me, and I’m going to do my coffee van in Tassie,” she said.

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER: GET FULL DIGITAL ACCESS + A PAIR OF $329 EARBUDS

“It’s all very exciting, so I’ll just have to make guest appearances up here.”

Ms Baxter’s last day in the shop will be June 16.

“So I’ll be putting on cheese platters and all different things to say goodbye to people,” she said.

“Just seeing the girls come in pregnant, then having their babies, then watching them grow up, and the puppies grow up. I’m going to miss a lot of people.”