Pub pokies smashed in Townsville
A brazen pub bandit has smashed up pokies across four Townsville pubs over the past month and stolen thousands of dollars.
So brazen in fact that the same person is believed to have hit the same hotels twice.
The modus operandi is simple: they break into the pubs and then hit the most popular machine inside the buildings.
No one knows exactly how much has stolen but it’s estimated to be in the thousands.
The bandit has hit three pubs in the Lillywhite Hotel Group - The Avenues, Bohle Barn and The Bushland Beach Tavern.
Arthur McMahon from Lilywhite described what happened.
“The Bushie Beach Tavern was the first one to get hit,” McMahon told the Townsville Bulletin.
“They’ve got in and done over two of the Lightning Links (poker machines), opened up, took the cash box out and went.
“They jimmied open the door and the whole time the person was in there he never looked at a camera and stayed crouched to be out of view.
“The whole thing lasts about 90 seconds. The machines that have been hit are the most popular at the moment.
“They have the highest turnover.”
And the bandit kept coming back to help himself to some more.
“About four days after he was at Bushie Beach, he did four Lightning Links at the Bohle and then went to the Avenues and did two machines there,” Mr McMahon said.
“He came back and had another crack at the Bohle, but the cleaner was there and he turned around and took off.
“He went back to Bushie from there and you can see where he has tried to jimmy open a door but he must have been disturbed and went. But he came back again and did another two machines.”
He said it was having an impact on the business.
“The damage of the machines is looking like about $200,000 to replace them and not only that but the amount of income we are missing out on is a lot while they are out of action,” he said.
“Patrons will leave to use the machine somewhere else and might not come back to us. It is massive loss of income.”
People with information that could assist police should contact Crime Stoppers, 1800 333 000.
by Leon Gettler, March 13th 2017
