Not my typical night off
Prior to joining the navy in 2001 I worked for about three years at a service station in Moonah, Tasmania. I have several stories about my time there but that’s for another post.
I completed my initial period of enlistment with the navy in June 2005 and started back working in service stations, this time at Caltex Sandy Bay. I initially worked day shifts for a while but was soon on night shift, starting work anywhere from 1900h through to 0600h, depending on staff availability.
I enjoyed the night shifts, it was generally not that busy so I could actually get other stuff done around the store like cleaning, stock replenishment and having a good old chat with customers, or watching TV. Because the service station was located on the corner at Wrest Point Casino it had a good mix of customers, with a few of the Casino staff coming through when they changed shifts who would occasionally have a chat on their way home.
I didn’t mind the work at the time but I soon realised I wasn’t enjoying it enough and I needed to be doing something else, an all too common theme in my life.
In less than two months out of the navy I was really starting to miss what I had been doing and I especially missed a few of the friends I had made, as well as missing the camaraderie. It wasn’t long before I was contacting the Reserve Cell staff at Anglesea Barracks in Hobart trying to see what I could do to return to navy full-time. I was also dealing with a relationship breakup that eventually dissolved in January 2006, a couple of months prior to the armed hold up.
In the morning of the 19th May 2006 around 0220h I was held up at knife point.
It was my rostered night off and I had just gone to bed but was still awake. The manager called to ask if I could come in at 2300h. He had been working with a trainee but something had come up and he didn’t have anyone else to work the rest of the night. I arrived and did a hand over with the manager, waited for him and the trainee to leave, then I went about my usual routine of tidying up and making sure everything was in order before settling in behind the counter to watch TV. Because it had initially been my night off I wasn’t overly interested in doing too much work.
What are the chances?
Any staff member on duty was required to wear a hold up alarm pendant attached to a lanyard to wear around their neck. From my first day working at Caltex Sandy Bay I had never worn it and the manager had reprimanded me several times about it. I always had it within arms- reach but never wore it; we also had a hold up alarm button under the bench top. For some reason on this night I actually decided to wear the pendant around my neck but had the button sitting in my open shirt pocket because I hated it swinging around.
It was a very quiet night and there had not been a customer for quite some time. I was sitting on a stool behind the counter watching some crappy late night TV show when I looked up and noticed two males walking across the driveway towards the main door. The door was locked; all I had to do was press a button to unlock it. I had a split second thought “something is not right, maybe I shouldn’t unlock the door”, but I pressed the door release button anyway; I hadn’t actually seen anything for me to worry about as they approached the store.
Before I knew it the door was ripped open and the first male through the door produced a baseball bat with a carving knife taped to the end of it. As soon as I saw the weapon I stepped back and grabbed for the alarm pendant sitting in my pocket. As I was doing this the guy with the weapon rushed at the counter delivering a heavy blow to the counter. I was uncertain if I had pressed the button properly so I grabbed for it again. This time as I raised my hand and grabbed the pendant the guy realised what I was doing and yelled at me to let it go as he raised the weapon and hit the counter again.
He then yelled at the other bloke to go around the end of the counter and grab the cigarettes off the shelf. He turned back at me and told me to empty the till. I went to step forward to press the button for the till and when he saw me moving forward he swung the weapon at me. At the time I didn’t think anything of it because it all happened very quickly but I watched the security footage later and saw I had actually dropped my left shoulder back and pushed the weapon out of the way with the palm of my right hand as I stepped back again and put my hands up.
I said, “Do you want me to open the fucking thing or not?” He replied “Yeah”. This time I opened the till and placed the tray on the counter and stepped back again. He pulled the till towards himself and grabbed the cash.
The other bloke had been stuffing as many cigarette packets as he could into his jacket and pockets before they both went running out the door. As they were leaving the first guy stopped at the door and said, “Don’t go ringing the cops because we’ll be back”. I replied, “Yeah fucking whatever”, as they ran out across the driveway and across the main road into the sports field.
Unlucky night for the crims
I picked the phone up and called the police, as I was doing this a taxi pulled in. The driver had been passing as the guys were running away so he got a reasonably good look at them. A police car had conveniently been just around the corner at the Casino and raced in. Two officers got out, asked what the suspects looked like and where they had run off to? I wasn’t too sure but the taxi driver gave them a pretty good description and the two officers drove off after the suspects.
A short time later after several other police and detectives arrived I was told the first two officers had picked up the suspects about 500 metres away, red handed with the cash and cigarettes as they were trying to leave a car park on the other side of the sports field. They had also dropped a small trail of cigarette packets on their way back to the car.
It was about three degrees that night and the suspects told police they had been sitting in the park across the road watching me for about an hour. They couldn’t have been watching me very well because about 10 minutes before they came in I had been counting several hundred dollars (twice) and transferred most of it into the second till at the other end of the counter to my left. All that remained in the primary till was roughly $112.
I inspected the counter later and even though there had been a thick advertising mat on the counter, the knife had cut through it and there were two big cuts out of the laminated wooden counter top.
When the police were taking my statement they asked if I was cut or injured, to which I replied no. I certainly didn’t see or feel anything anyway. It wasn’t until I was home in the morning and took my shirt off to realise I had an almost two inch cut across my chest where I had knocked the knife away when it was swung at me. It was pretty much only a surface scratch but when I went to the police station a few days later to have a chat and look at the weapon I was asked again if I had any injuries. I said there was a cut on my chest and was asked to take my shirt off so they could photograph it. I took my shirt off as the officer lifted her camera; she looked at the cut, smirked, and said, “Is that it?”
The manager had come back in to make sure myself and everything else was OK and show the security video footage to the police. Apparently they all had a good chuckle when they heard me yell back at the suspects as they had been running off.
After the police left, the manager told me to go home but I said I was fine and happy to stay and finish my shift. The rest of the night was quiet. Just before the 6 o’clock news on the radio I remembered mum usually listened to the news and dad would most likely be up already heading to work soon. I called both of them to tell them what had happened and that I was fine. If it was today I guess I might have put it on Facebook; back then not many of my friends knew about it unless I told them but I wasn’t that interested in talking about it until years later.
For years after I had never thought this incident affected me but with everything else I went through a few years later, SIEV 36, I eventually discovered it quite possibly affected my state of mind.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that is triggered when a person witnesses a psychologically traumatic event, such as war, a natural disaster, or any situation that invokes feelings of helplessness or intense fear. While most people eventually adjust to the aftereffects of such events, some people find their symptoms getting worse with time. These worsening symptoms are the product of PTSD.
As is usually the case with mental health issues, doctors cannot pinpoint why some people develop PTSD. According to the Mayo Clinic, probable causes of PTSD include inherited mental and personality traits, a culmination of life experiences, and the way hormones and chemicals are regulated by the brain when responding to stress. https://www.psychguides.com/pstsd/symptoms-causes-and-effects/
I guess the reason I kept my cool for all the events I was involved in during my life was due to my parents almost never over-reacting to situations and handling things with a calm head.
But there is only so much a person can take before they eventually break.
The following are the Judges’ comments on passing sentence, April 2007:
You have both pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated armed robbery.
As at the 19th May 2006 the two of you shared a house at Huonville. You were both separated from your partner and each of you had at least one child. Each of you had been taking medication for anxiety and on this night took more than you should and were also drinking alcohol. In the early hours of the morning you were in Jason’s car parked in Peel Street Sandy Bay near the sports grounds. You had no money to buy more alcohol and were generally bemoaning how your lives were going so badly. You made the decision to rob the nearby Caltex service station.
On this night there was one attendant working in the locked service area. You, Jason, picked up a weapon in the form of a baseball bat which had a knife taped to the end of it somewhat like a bayonet. You both then got out of the car and walked across the sports field towards Sandy Bay Road. You then walked across Sandy Bay Road and onto the forecourt of the service station. The attendant saw you but obviously not the weapon and unlocked the door. You, Jason, wearing a blue peaked cap, entered the service station by yourself wielding the baseball bat weapon in your right hand and ran up to the counter where the attendant was seated. You demanded money.
You, Jason, were aggressive, slamming the baseball bat down onto the counter several times causing the knife to make cuts in the counter and in the plastic mat on the counter. You, Kevin wearing a white peaked cap, then entered the service station and walked up to the cigarette dispenser located at the end of the counter. Jason told you to grab cigarettes. The attendant removed the cash drawer from the till and placed it on the counter. You, Jason, walked back to the counter and removed cash and coins from the cash drawer whilst your co-accused grabbed a quantity of cigarettes.
You both then ran from the service station and back to the car. The vehicle was driven a short distance without lights but was intercepted quickly by police. The stolen cigarettes and money were found. You were both arrested charged and interviewed. You each made admissions although attempted to minimise your involvement.
The service station attendant on the night had fortunately had training in how to deal with a violent robbery. Apart from what appears to have been an accidentally inflicted cut on his chest on the night he has suffered no other ongoing injury or consequence from the robbery.
As to you Kevin, you are 31 years old. You have a history of offending which includes two convictions of breaking and entering, the most recent being in 2000. You were separated from your partner at the time of this offending but are discussing a reconciliation which will see you reunited with her and your 2 children. You have since July last year been accessing the Huon Community and Health Service to obtain help with accommodation, food and generally getting your life back on track. You have also maintained contact with drug and alcohol services.
As to you Jason, you are 22 years old. Apart from what appears to have been a minor stealing offence in 2003 you have no relevant prior convictions. You have now reunited with your partner and in fact hope ultimately to move to Western Australia where your father from who you have been estranged for a number of years lives. He has made contact with you and offered support.
The offending on this night appears to have been opportunistic save for the presence of the weapon. Clearly not much thought went into what you both did. You were quickly caught and the property recovered. You made admissions and have pleaded guilty. Despite the fact one of you is older and with a more relevant record, the younger of you took the more active role with the weapon. There is little reason in the circumstances to treat you any differently as far as sentence is concerned.
- That you each be convicted of one count of aggravated armed robbery.
- That you each be sentenced to serve a period of 12 months imprisonment backdated to 30 March 2007. That the execution of the sentence be suspended after you have served a period of 4 months on condition that for a period of 2 years from your release from custody you be of good behaviour and not commit any offence involving dishonesty or violence.
- That you each pay a victim of crime compensation levy of $50.
Sailing The Unknown 
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