April 16, 2016
Police are appealing for public assistance following the armed robbery of Ryke’s service station in Kingaroy on Friday night – the second time the business has been robbed in the last week.
Initial investigations suggest a man entered the service station on Youngman Street around 8:40pm and threatened an employee with a tyre lever, demanding money.
The employee complied with the demands before the man fled the scene on foot, travelling along Youngman Street towards River Road.
The 48-year-old male employee was not physically injured during the incident.
Police attended and conducted patrols of the area, but were unable to locate the man.
He is described as about 178cm tall, of a muscular build and wearing a black balaclava under a grey hoodie, blue jeans, white sneakers and white gloves.
Investigations are continuing.
Anyone with information can phone Kingaroy CIB on (07) 4160-4900 or Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000.
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On Saturday morning, owner Peter Ryke said thieves are unlikely to find the service station an easy target in the future.
Since last week’s robbery the service station’s cashier area has been extensively upgraded with thick, high impact security glass and a locked door.
Mr Ryke said last night’s robbery was only able to occur because the operator had the cashier’s door open at the time the robber entered the premises.
The door had just been painted and the operator was removing masking tape at the time.
Mr Ryke, who has owned the service station for more than 30 years, said the recent spate of robberies was unprecedented.
However he hoped the service station’s extensively upgraded security systems would put an end to any future attempts.
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It is disgusting, how the society of Kingaroy have become, it is people like that, that give this town a bad name. I have lived in this town for 13 years and never have ever been so disgusted in the way some people can really be, whoever they are should be booted from the South Burnett and never to return. Can’t believe people would rather do over their own home town instead of protecting it.
To be fair, Kim, they may not be local residents. Let’s hope not!
Maybe this will encourage them to modernise from a “barn” into a modern looking and functioning service station