Strange justice for armed robbery victim
Marisa Page ... “The first time I saw her I had a panic attack.”
Nambour News and Casket Agency owner Marisa Page will never forget being held at knifepoint during a violent armed robbery in February this year.
But the shock of seeing the woman arrested for the crime walking the streets only weeks later was almost as confronting.
“The first time I saw her I had a panic attack,” Marisa said. “It’s taken me a while to get over it. I still see her walking around the streets.”
Marisa said as a former nurse she was used to dealing with all sorts of people and difficult situations but nothing could have prepared her for the robbery with a long-bladed kitchen knife.
“She pulled the knife and lunged at me. She had me by the hair. She had the knife in my back and pushed me into the till and made me open the till.”
Marisa and her husband Rodney have come to know many people with mental health and addiction issues who live in Nambour or who visit for the health services in town.
Like most people they have genuine sympathy and in many cases affection for troubled or homeless people and people battling addiction.
“Some are our customers,” says Marisa. “They come in to buy drinks, cigarettes or lotto tickets. We get along really well with all our customers. It’s usually only the odd one that causes trouble.
“But because we’re here all the time you do get to see a lot of what goes on and some of it is not nice. There are a lot of altercations and people yelling in the street, but unless it gets physical it tends to peter off.
“The train stops right in town and I think people would be surprised how many people come off that train seeking the services in town,” she said referring to the State Government’s needle exchange program and mental health services and a methadone clinic in town.
She said an increased police presence would make pedestrians and businesses feel safer but she hadn’t noticed much of a difference during the police beat trial earlier this year.
She said the mental health and addiction services were valuable but wondered whether they needed to be concentrated in Nambour and drawn from such a wide area.
“I’m lucky in a way because Rodney’s up early and he warns me if he notices a high number of troubled people in town. I don’t know what the answer is.”
Intended to keep heroin addicts off illegal drugs, methadone clinics help reduce crime associated with people supporting a habit that would otherwise cost several hundred dollars a day.
Still, the Gazette has heard from several shoppers and business owners who feel vulnerable and are concerned about some of the clientele who frequent the area.