A Toti mother and three teenagers were left shaken and terrified after knife-wielding thugs robbed them on the beach in the last week of December.
Sally Meyer of Beach Road was walking past Pipeline beach towards Twini with her son, Josh (16), his girlfriend Samantha (17) and her daughter Tamika (14), collecting shells on Sunday, 28 December when they were accosted by the thieves.
“We were about 200m to 300m past Pipeline when one man approached us from the front and one from behind,” said Sally. “Both had knives with newspaper taped to the handles. One was carrying a brick, while the other brandished a metal pipe.
They were very threatening and one was very loud. He showed us his tattoos which he said were from prison, which proved he had killed and was willing to kill again.”
The men made them walk down to the water’s edge and sit. Seeing Josh as a threat, one thug pinned his arms behind his back, while the other rifled through their bags, carelessly tossing aside items they were not interested in.
“They took cellphones, a camera, watch and money,” said Sally. “They allowed Tamika to collect the discarded items, but when I moved away from the incoming waves, the loud one went crazy. He looked ‘high’ and was totally out of control. I’ve never heard threats like that before.”
The men told them to run toward Twini while he counted to 10. When he reached 10, they would chase after them and kill anyone they caught.
“We asked if we could run towards Pipeline, as that was towards home, but he went beserk again. We could hear him counting while we stumbled over the sand. When he reached 10, we looked back to see if they were following us, but they ran into the bush.”
Sally warns other beach-goers to be careful. She described the two men as between 23 and 25-years-old, wearing baggies and T-shirts, about 5-foot-8 or nine and the one with tattoos on his left upper arm.
