Staff threatened with gun in Tesco Express robbery

Staff threatened with gun in Tesco Express robbery

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A member of staff at Tesco Express supermarket in Heywood was threatened with a gun by a robber demanding cash.

At about 8.20am on Sunday 19 October 2014, a man entered the Tesco Express on Bury Street.

Unsteady on his feet, he stumbled to the counter. Due to there not being any staff present he lifted his face covering and shouted for assistance.

A member of staff attended and the offender gestured to his belt, where he had a handgun.

He threatened the cashier and demanded cash.

An amount of cash was handed over, some of which the man dropped as he left the scene. CCTV footage captures him stumbling about the car park picking up the stolen cash.

Unaware of what has happened, a member of the public is also seen picking up the cash, but is called into the supermarket prior to handing it back over to the man.

The robber is described as white, about 6ft 2in tall, of slim build and in his late 20s. He was wearing a green camouflage jacket and black tracksuit bottoms and had a scarf covering his face.

Detective Sergeant Nicola Hopkinson, said: “There are parts of this armed robbery that border on calamitous and while images of him scrambling around the car park may at first appear amusing, we must not detract from the fact that an innocent shop worker has been threatened at gun point.

“Due to the offender’s lack of coordination and general demeanour while robbing the store we suspect that he was drunk, which may in some part account for why he has done this, but regardless he has committed a serious offence and we need to identify him.

“It is unlikely that he has travelled far and I am confident some one will know who he is so I want to appeal to the local community to look closely and let me know if they recognise him.

“If anyone has any information that can help the investigation I would encourage them to call us.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0161 856 6701.