A hero bystander armed with a mop and a fluorescent yellow wet floor sign bravely attempted to fend off an alleged robber armed with a knife in a Surry Hills convenience store on Sunday evening.
The customer attempted to wave away the masked man inside the Aruma Grocer on Devonshire Street just after 8pm. The accused thief later died after jumping from a fifth-floor balcony when police attended his nearby unit block.
CCTV from inside the store shows the alleged robber wearing a bright red hoodie and carrying a cross-body bag, his face obscured by a purple balaclava.
In a minute-long exchange, the customer wearing a pink hoodie and grey sweatpants waves the mop’s head towards the bandit, who allegedly took the store’s cash register with less than $200 inside.
The alleged thief, who is aged in his 40s but yet to be formally identified, then left the store alongside a 21-year-old woman who was waiting outside. CCTV captures the pair fleeing to the Surry Hills Light Rail, where the man continues to wave the knife around.
A little over an hour later, about 9.10pm, police had tracked down the alleged robber at a unit block on nearby Belvoir Street.
Store CCTV captured the hero bystander armed confronting the alleged thief.
When the officers entered the hallway of the block, the man tried to escape, with the woman allegedly closing the unit door on police as they approached.
“The male … has spotted police and then has ran out to the back of the unit and jumped off the balcony,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Scott Tanner said at a press conference on Monday.
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