Police are confident they will catch armed “child offenders” who robbed four supermarkets in Melbourne’s south-east on Saturday.
The group stole cigarettes and cash from the supermarkets. Four employees suffered minor injuries including a cut hand. The incidents began at 3.50pm in Bernard Street, Cheltenham, and continued to stores in Cochrane Street, Brighton, and Andrew Street, Mount Waverley, before ending at a fourth supermarket, in Through Road, Camberwell, at 6.30pm.
Inspector Scott Dwyer said the “confrontational” robberies by the youths, who were armed with knives and were rough with employees, were not something police saw regularly.
“The incidents that occurred on Saturday where youths have gone in during the day, armed [with] knives, and got into a confrontation doesn’t occur very often, and when it does, it elicits a really high response from us,” Dwyer said on Sunday.
He described those involved in the robberies as “child offenders” aged between 14 and 17, from a range of nationalities.
“We know these people,” he said. “What we have seen from [Operations] Trinity and Alliance, where you have seen us make almost 3000 arrests in the last 12 months – we know them, we know their methodology, and we know who they hang out with.”
Police believe the Mercedes driven by the youths was stolen on June 7 from a Doncaster East home while the owners were asleep, but it was made harder to track as number plates from another stolen vehicle were placed over the regular plates.
Dwyer said robberies were traumatic for everyone involved.
“It would have been a horrific scene for anyone who witnessed it, and three staff members received minor injuries as a result of physical altercation at those incidents,” he said.