By Christine de Kock
A YARRAVILLE hotelier will receive a bravery award for restraining two armed thieves who tried to rob his business in June 2005.
Peter Stanovsek, owner of Victoria on Hyde, has a vivid recollection of the attack that happened more than a year ago when he had just opened the hotel for morning trading.
“It was early in the morning and there was a girl,” he said.
“She’s walked into the office and I’ve followed her.”
The girl was wearing a balaclava and had entered the hotel’s strong room where she began stuffing money into a bag.
Mr Stanovsek yelled out asking her what she was doing and then noticed she was carrying a gun.
“As I walked towards her she backed away and as she backed away I saw that she had a gun in her hand, it was pointing up towards the ceiling,” he said.
Mr Stanovsek tackled the woman and reached for the gun.
“At one stage my elbow was pushed against her chest forcing her into a corner and in the other hand I had hold of the gun and I’d never had a gun before. I remember thinking to myself, gees, what do I do now?
“That’s when I called the maintenance guy, he came straight away and helped me, I tossed the gun on the floor and then we baled her up in a corner of the office.”
Mr Stanovsek then called the police. “She’s saying: ‘let me go, I’ve got a baby’ and all these falsehoods.”
He left the woman with the maintenance man while he went from the office. He was then confronted by the woman’s accomplice.
He said the whole incident took about four minutes.
Mr Stanovsek is being honoured with a commendation for brave conduct at a ceremony, details of which the Commonwealth Government is yet to release.
“This has come out of the blue, I’m surprised about it and a bit chuffed as well.”
His wife Vicki said she was proud of her husband.
“He’d just bought the business in 2004 and then it happened the next year, I guess when you are in that business you expect some sort of problem along those lines.”
Mr Stanovsek is a chartered public accountant but before running the hotel was involved in the taxi cab business.
