A thief clutching a large knife and a designer handbag has terrorised young staff members at a fast-food restaurant in Sydney’s south-west overnight, before waving goodbye as he fled the scene. Police were called to reports of an armed robbery at the Padstow Oporto food outlet just before 9pm. Chilling CCTV shows the robber, wearing a hooded white jumper and a black cloth across his face, lead a frightened employee to several different cashiers and a safe, while threatening him with a knife. The employee is forced to open the cashiers as the thief wipes them clean, stashing the takings of the long weekend into a designer Louis Vuitton handbag. “He grabbed one of our staff and dragged her around the front register and asked her ‘where is the manager?’,” restaurant worker Bikesh Maharzam recounted. The thief, who is believed to have escaped with up to $10,000 cash, waved goodbye to the frightened staff as he ran from the scene.
