Knives stolen from army disposals store in Townsville

A Townsville army disposals store has been raided by a thief getting off with more than 100 “pretty serious” knives, its owner says.

Rob Peel told staff at Church’s Tactical and Outdoors found the crime scene after entering the West End store this morning.

Mr Peel then monitored security footage, which showed a man breaking in around 12:30 am Saturday.

It is assumed that he entered through the store’s ceiling.

“He had a big bag and he just filled the bag up like, basically just grabbing the stuff out of the cabinet,” Mr Peel said.

“Heaps, over a hundred. Some of them are sort of pig-hunting knives, and big tactical knives for the Army guys.”

Mr Peel said the robbery would have a notable economic impact.

“The building’s obviously a shemozzle,” he said.

“They’ve managed to cut the bars, I don’t know how, with what tool … but they’ve wrecked the windows.

“It’s pretty disappointing.”

Mr Peel is concerned about the thief’s plan.

“These are pretty serious knives,” he said.

“You wouldn’t like to think what they could do with them.

“Hopefully they’ll try to sell them somewhere and hopefully police can get them.”

Mr Peel’s family owns the store for 16 years. He said this was the first time it had been targeted.

He said the crime rate in the city did not seem to be calming, denoting the alleged murder of a woman in Condon last night.

Jason Shepherd, Detective Acting Inspector, said it was essential not to jump to conclusions about the knife thief.

“It’s hard to say at this stage what the motivation might have been for that,” the acting inspector said.

“Whether they’re just collecting for sale and it was just convenient they were there, or whether it was actually intentionally targeted, I couldn’t comment at this stage.”