Two women in their 70’s were given the fright of their lives after being approached by a knife wielding man in Lake Bunga recently.
Adding to their terror was the time it took police to arrive on the scene after the initial telephone call for help was made.
One of the terrified women has spoken to the Post about the ordeal which unfolded on a Friday morning almost three weeks ago.
Rosemary says she was at home helping her friend, Renata, who was visiting, unpack her caravan, when a man walked down the driveway toward them brandishing a 25 to 30-centimetre long kitchen knife.
Renata’s Toyota LandCruiser was also nearby with the doors open, but there were no keys in the ignition because the vehicle is a button start car.
Rosemary described the man as “extremely agitated and definitely on drugs”.
“He kept saying, ‘they’re after me’ and was waving the knife around,” she said.
Rosemary observed the man looking inside Renata’s car and realising there were no keys said he wanted the car.
“He said a lot of other things, but I was so scared that I don’t remember it,” Rosemary told the Post.
When the two women walked away from the man, he followed them, doing laps around the caravan before the duo quickly locked themselves inside the van.
The women then called 000 and watched as the offender left the property and headed into her neighbour’s house where he confronted her 19-year-old neighbour, a woman who was home alone.
“I could hear my neighbour talking to the man and then telling him to get out,” Rosemary recalled.
After the agitated man left the neighbouring property, Rosemary rushed to rescue her young neighbour and the three women locked themselves inside Rosemary’s house where they called 000 again and waited for police to arrive.
After a wait of about 40 minutes, Rosemary said three police cars arrived together from Orbost, Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance.
The man was arrested in a third neighbouring property and taken to a local hospital.
Rosemary says while the ordeal was “frightening,” she is full of praise for police.
“The police were great, you can’t knock them, but there’s just not enough police in this area,” she said.
Rosemary says she doesn’t want anyone else to “go through what we did.”
Lakes Entrance police confirmed a 40-yearold man from Bairnsdale was arrested and taken to hospital because of concerns about his mental stability.
He’s been charged with attempted robbery.
Senior Sergeant Matt Jenkins, of Lakes Entrance police, said the station’s only divisional van was “attending another incident on the day” and units are sent from the next available police station.
