The group had solely been within the empty Kinglake Foodworks retailer for just a few seconds after they copped an disagreeable shock.
Gloved-up, carrying balaclavas and wielding crowbars – the three would-be thieves meant enterprise.
They entered the Kinglake Foodworks, making a beeline for the cigarettes, however then a cascade of thick smoke descended from a gap within the ceiling.
It crammed the room, prompting a strobe gentle to go off together with a particularly loud alarm.
The robbers can then be seeing panicking and working from the shop empty handed.
“[They] get their hopes up, they will get in and as soon as they’re in they can not see or hear one another,” retailer proprietor Peter Kordos stated.
“Hopefully they inform their mates that it isn’t a simple goal.”
Requested the way it felt to look at the group run in concern, Kordos stated: “It felt unbelievable”.
It price Kordos round $7000 to put in the Smoke Protect know-how, which is more and more being utilized by Victorian retailers to cease thieves.
Kordos beefed up safety just a few years in the past after the shop was robbed – sadly, that point the thieves did get away with inventory.
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It was a get up name for Kordos, and now the funding within the anti-theft know-how has paid off
“Thank god we had it,” he stated.
“It was extraordinarily satisfying.”
The lads concerned in Wednesday’s break-in turned smoke-out have not been caught.
However Kordos’ not too frightened.
