Kitcheners ram-raid brings out community support

A front-end loader assault on a bank ATM which collapsed part of a verandah, ripped open a cafe frontage and wrecked building support beams netted the culprit nothing – but brought a swell of community support for the damaged Kitcheners Cafe business.

Within nine hours of the ATM ram-raid on Friday night, the business owners had been overwhelmed by offers of everything from a range of repair equipment like trucks to manpower _ even an offer to make cheese scones for the cafe.

By Monday morning _ after a weekend of “total” cleaning and repairs, Kitcheners re-opened for business _ losing no trading time to the wrecking loader attempt on the shop-front ATM.

Building owner Sue Sullivan told The Star at the site hours after the pre-midnight Friday attack:

“We were woken up in the middle of the night with our phone ringing off the hook. People over at Cool Change had seen this guy drive the front-end loader round the corner and then just flew straight into the building.”

“He got jammed _ we’ve got footage of it _ he got jammed on top of the (curbside concrete and steel) bollard, then managed to extricate it, hopped out, went into the building to have a look.”

“He was a young, very thin male dressed all in black with black gloves on, a black hoodie with a backpack. He just took one look, realised the futility of trying to get money out of the ATM and took off down the road _ and all the (bar) people saw him leaving the scene (through The Square).”

“We got here … police had arrived and cordoned off the area and now it’s just a matter of trying to get the building reinstated to the point our daughters can operate the business.

“We’re hoping to be able to operate (the cafe) in a very short time.”

The offender had earlier “smashed his way out of (another local) business with the stolen machine.”

“We had similar occurrences with losing this end of the building,” she added, pointing to two verandah posts at the other end of the frontage.

“A truck, handbrake not on, rolled and took out two of these (posts) and collapsed the verandah,” she said, adding the biggest cost of that repair was “$22,000 for traffic management _ which involved one guy sitting in a vehicle day-in, day-out, sleeping, smoking, reading his cellphone.”

She would be checking their contract with ANZ Bank, “reading the millions of pages of fine print, which I will be doing next week,” over what was covered.

Suzanne described the ATM attack as “a pointless exercise, they’re a giant safe and you can’t break into them.” 

While the offender likely “is a P addict … he does know how to drive a front-end loader.”

By 0730 Saturday morning “we have had so many offers of trucks, trailers, people manpower, electricians are coming and everybody is all teed up, (including) the guy who is to do our Internet (connection cut by the attack) _ so many wonderful people in this town are coming forward to help us out, get the girls back up and running.” Sue’s adult daughters now run the cafe.

As she spoke several locals came to express concerns over the attack and all asked: “how can I help?”

“Oh what scumbags,” one local business owner said to Suzanne. “Tell the girls to ask for help with anything at all, I really mean it.”

“What a shame,” said another, “just crazy, eh.”

A third: “So they didn’t get any money? He wasn’t just a scumbag, he was an ignorant scumbag.”

Another: “I don’t think much of the girls’ remodelling job (on the cafe frontage) he said. “It’s a bit rough,” as the group laughed.

Earlier Saturday morning, Constable Jared Perkins told The Star that as the front-end loader assault began, “people in the pub (Jimmy’s Bar) were sitting there watching it all happen.” 

Speaking just nine hours after the incident, he said detectives already had a “pretty good idea” of who the culprit was.

“Maybe (the offender) just saw a front-end loader, saw an  ATM and thought ‘let’s try.’ They’re not known for their I.Q.” Or for realising the ATM’s contents are sprayed with dye when it’s tilted,

making the cash inside unusable. The ATM was lying flat on its back, still chained to its  concrete base.

CCTV footage recording the event was readily available, and “there are some specifics (captured on tape) that are very helpful to us.”

Tape police barriers were up to protect people as some building corner load-bearing beams “have been taken out,” he noted.

At that point police had been told the cafe could be closed for up to six weeks “right before Christmas. Not very fair, is it.”

Update:

By the Friday, a week after the ram-raid, Kitcheners was full of customers and loud, as Sue provided a update.

“We were able to trade straight away from Monday, a lot of support, with a lot of people coming in we hadn’t seen for a long time. People have been wonderful _ presents galore coming through the door, flowers, alcohol, money _ it’s been non-stop. 

“Getting a report from the structural engineer that the building was safe was wonderful,” as the cafe supports five families, and “they all need to earn money,” she said.

“Takings have been great with so many people coming in and that’s the best kind of support.”

Builders are due to begin work shortly, their first priority to build an internal wall to prevent any mess getting inside the cafe area.  

The ATM would likely be reinstated by the bank, “as more money comes out of this machine than their machine in Queenstown.”

A “lot of determination” by the family and tradies had been key to re-opening the business.

“It is a fabulous story of community and that’s why we love this community. They are such wonderful people,” she said.

Detectives had now confirmed “a taskforce” had been formed to carry out inquiries, with Sue noting “there was some blood in the machine” which had had its front windscreen broken by flying debris. She wondered “whether they would get DNA” from the blood spots. 

“Whether it was his (the perpetrator’s) blood, we don’t know.”

Co-owner Bruce Sullivan said the police believe the perpetrator is a local, something he says is disappointing given the close-knit nature of the town.

“I am disappointed that if it does pan out to be this guy, we know him, we know his family.” 

“It’s disappointing to think that a local that we all know would do this.” 

Police said enquiries into the incident are ongoing.

Captions:

Photo 1 for front page: (jpg 073815) : Ram-raid loader and wrecked frontage after failed ATM snatch.

Photo 2 for front or spill page (P2 perhaps)(jpg 090739): Wreckage and ATM removed, Kitcheners door is open for business.