By Amelia Willmer
The thugs who left an elderly man fighting for life after they shoved him face down into the gutter outside Grand Central in Toowoomba have struck again, this time in Warwick.
The victim of the Toowoomba attack, a 75 year old man, died in hospital this Monday 13 February as a result of the attack.
For days, news reports had advised that the elderly man was unlikely to survive his injuries and he succumbed at the Toowoomba Hospital on 13 February.
In Warwick last Monday 6 February, police swooped to Rose City Shopping Centre after the pre-dawn smash-and-grab at Rose City Jewellers and arrested two suspects, one armed with a pick-axe.
The two, who are alleged to be part of a gang responsible for the attack on the elderly Toowoomba man, are now in custody in Toowoomba.
Staff at Rose City Fruits said they alerted police at 2.30am when they heard the sound of breaking glass.
John and Christine Walsh, owners of Rose City Jewellers, were on the scene just eight minutes later.
“We came in through the shopping centre’s fire tunnel and I can tell you it made my skin crawl,” said John, aged 70, who is recovering from a recent heart attack.
“Going into that spooky gloom of the fire tunnel, and not knowing what to expect when we emerged into the centre, was gut-churning.
“The staff at Rose City Fruits had told us one of the thugs had been wielding a small pick-axe and we just silently prayed they had fled the scene.
“We saw the pair sitting in a car out in Palmerin Street which, luckily for Warwick, is covered by closed circuit television cameras.
“That makes the police’s job so much easier and it was soon established who this pair was and that they were in a stolen car. The police told us the two were wanted for questioning over the Grand Central attack on the elderly man who is fighting for life.
“It looks like the Toowoomba crime epidemic we are always hearing about on the television news is now part of the whole Darling Downs.”
The break-in is the fourth for John and Christine in recent years.
They own two shops. One is in Rose City Shopping Centre, the other is Warwick Watchmakers and Jewelers at 117 Palmerin St.
“This time they stole about $40,000 worth of items from the front display at Rose City,” John said.
“They broke into the shopping centre by pushing-in the side panel and then slipped through to use the pick-axe to smash the hell out of our display windows.
“The mess was appalling and took two whole days to clean up.
“From previous experience, I can tell you, I will be finding tiny bits of glass for months to come.
“Even though we are insured, there is always the insurance excess to pay and there is no recompense for the two whole days of trading lost in the auditing of the lost goods and the clean-up.”
The other cost is intangible. The mental health consequences for decent people trying to run a business is a hidden toll.
“I feel numb and past anger,” John said.
“This is the fourth robbery and I have just had it.
“I had a heart attack last year and have stents put in.
“Now, instead of feeling full of energy, after what happened last Monday, I just feel physically and emotionally exhausted.”
At the time of going to print, Warwick police were unavailable to comment.
