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Thieves armed with shotgun and machete burst into Sydney cinema Thieves armed with guns and machete burst into Sydney cinema
(about 9 hours later)
Four bandits burst into a Sydney cinema with a shotgun and machete and threatened customers and staff on Monday night. Moviegoers were lucky to escape unhurt after three men and a teenage girl armed with guns and a machete stormed the foyer of a Sydney cinema in a "brazen and shocking" robbery, police say.
The same gang of armed thieves also later robbed a pub in the city's west, police believe. The incident at the suburban Roseville Cinemas on Monday night put the lives of families and children at risk, north shore Detective Inspector Carole Dowsen told reporters.
In the first incident, the bandits stormed into Roseville cinema about 8pm. "It was a very brazen attack, something that we actually think is shocking," Dowsen said. "They're going to a movie cinema, it's early and there could be children around, and they've got a shotgun.
They made off with cash and fled in a Nissan Pulsar. "It's extremely lucky that nobody was hurt."
About two hours later, three men stole cash and cigarettes from a hotel at Revesby. The NSW opposition police spokesman, Nathan Rees, said it reflected a sad state of affairs in Sydney.
Those thieves were also armed with a shotgun and fled in a Nissan Pulsar. "Nobody expects to be threatened with a machete or a shotgun as they go to the cinema," he said.
The getaway car was later found burnt-out at Westmead. The robbers took cash from the cinema – which was screening Blue Jasmine, the newly-released Woody Allen movie starring Cate Blanchett – and demanded people near the counter hand over their wallets.
No one was injured in either robbery. "They threatened them, saying 'we'll shoot you if you don't give us your money'," Dowsen said.
A police spokesman told AAP that officers believed the robberies were linked. They then fled in a car allegedly car-jacked from an 87-year-old Lane Cove man half an hour before and held up a pub in Revesby, in Sydney's west, where they stole cigarettes and cash.
"We've got a few links between those two robberies ... the vehicle, the fact that the offenders were armed with a shotgun on both occasions," he said. Dowsen said they may have carried out the second robbery because they didn't get away with enough takings from the cinema. "I would suggest the car-jacking and the movie theatre was planned," she said. "It may have been an opportunistic crime for the second robbery, as an afterthought, because they didn't get as much money."
"There were reported four (men) in the first one, and three in the second, in theory someone could have been with the vehicle." It's believed the alleged robbers were three men aged between 19 and 20, and a teenage girl. The stolen car was later found burnt out in Westmead.
Paul Gertler was at the cinema with his wife when the armed robbers entered. "We were definitely shook up by it, for sure," he told Fairfax Media.
"It was just one of the last things you expect to happen."
Investigators said while the robbery may have been a "clumsy" or opportunistic crime, the group's possession of a sawn-off shotgun was worrying.
"I'm sure that they will try something else again," Dowsen said.
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