Gun-toting pair steals cash and safe from Trevallyn Gourmet Bakery

TWO bakers have talked of the shock of being confronted with a sawn-off shotgun in an armed robbery in the Launceston suburb of Trevallyn.

Trevallyn Gourmet Bakery, in Gorge Rd, was hit by armed robbers in the early hours of this morning.

TWO bakers have talked of the shock of being confronted with a sawn-off shotgun in an armed robbery in the Launceston suburb of Trevallyn early today.

Josh Humphries, 29, and Alex Duncan, 22, were at work at 2.15am when two men wearing clown masks and gloves walked in with a single-barrel sawn-off shotgun and aggressively demanded money.

The men pointed the gun at Mr Duncan and veered Mr Humphries around a corner.

The men said the intruders asked: “Where’s all the money? Where’s the safe.”

“Then they brought us out the shopfront and grabbed the money from the till,” they said.

Mr Duncan said the men put the money in a backpack.

“They were saying they were going to shoot us,” Mr Duncan said.

The robbers asked for the men’s car keys and for their wallets.

“They took us off out to the back and eventually found the safe,” Mr Humphries said.

Mr Duncan’s prized possession – a beige 2007 Land Cruiser utility – was stolen from across the road.

“They found my keys and then my phone was sitting with it and they stole that,” he said.

The men grabbed Mr Duncan’s wallet but put it back in his pocket.

The men thought it was an amateurish operation.

“The younger bloke could have been on drugs because he was more feistier than the other dude that was there, he was pretty calm” Mr Humphries said.

They said one of the robbers would have been in his early 20s and the other in his 30s.

“They were wearing evil-looking masks – goblinish – the ones going around on the internet,” they said.

“It was more shock than anything. I haven’t had anything like that happen to me and it was a bit of a shock to the system, I didn’t know what to say so just co-operated,” Mr Humphries said.

Mr Duncan said the incident seemed unreal but a belief that the gun wasn’t real made him feel calmer.

“It didn’t scare me as much as it should have,” he said.

“It was a fake gun, I’d almost swear my life on it.”

But Mr Humphries said he did not know much about guns so didn’t know if it was real or fake.

Now Mr Duncan’s main concern is to get his $60,000 car back in one piece.

They said the incident lasted 10 to 15 minutes.

Mr Humphries said he had noticed one of the men’s shoes.

“I was looking at the same brand myself a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

Police have CCTV footage from inside the store and shops in the small shopping precinct also have CCTV.

Detective Sergeant Darren Turner said the 4WD vehicle with the registration number E20GN had not yet been recovered.

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident or may have any information are urged to contact the Launceston Criminal Investigation Branch on 6777 3911 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Originally published as Gun-toting pair steals cash and safe from Trevallyn Gourmet Bakery