Two Wagga service stations held at knife-point in one night

Police late Monday afternoon arrested a 15-year-old teen and a 21-year-old man after discovering them hiding beneath a house in Ashmont. 

The pair are believed to be implicated in one of two armed robberies just hours apart which saw one man stabbed and another man bashed mercilessly. 

One crook may still remain at large after Ashmont’s Silvalite Fuel Stop and a Tolland service station were both targeted by criminals in a worrying escalation of the city’s recent spate of crime. 

Alison Williams, one of the Silvalite service station staff members threatened during the horrifying ordeal, said she was relieved nobody was killed. 

“It has obviously left us all feeling very on edge and shocked but we’re just glad he left with nothing and that it didn’t have a worse outcome,” she said. 

“It took about four seconds to register what was happening so it was hard to even panic.

“We were lucky to have three staff members in the store that night because if there was only one of us he could’ve done whatever he wanted.

“I’ve only had two or three hours sleep, it’s been a bit overwhelming.”

The lone thug walked into Ashmont’s Silvalite service station around 6.20pm before storming the kitchen with a knife and screameing demands at two female workers and a male manager. 

It is alleged the offender, who had his facial features covered, then lunged and stabbed the 36-year-old manager in the shoulder.

The violent ordeal came to a halt when the wounded victim managed to wrestle the crook from the store, who then fled towards Adams Street.

Paramedics were called and the manager was taken to and treated at Wagga Rural Referral Hospital.

Several hours later, a heist at Tolland’s Shell service station saw two criminals enter the store with a bladed weapon. 

The two thugs made a series of demands for cash before punching an attendant to the ground and repeatedly kicking him on the floor. 

They escaped the service station with a significant amount of cash and cigarettes.

Wagga crime manager Inspector Darren Cloake has not ruled out the possibility that the two hold-ups were linked. 

“In the Wagga community these type of offences are not that common and are at the higher end of the criminality scale so we're not discounting the possibility they were both related,” he said. 

“There was a clear intention to inflict corporal violence in both of these offences, so we are taking this very seriously.

“Adequate security measures will also be reviewed at both of these service stations.”

Police have issued a description of the would-be Ashmont robber in a bid the public can help lead to his apprehension.

He was wearing a white jumper, black pants and grey Nike shoes and had his face covered with a blue shirt.