The Lower Plenty Hotel was sporting more patrons than usual that early Monday afternoon. It was a long-weekend and the eve of the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s biggest one-day gambling event. And it seemed that just about everybody was down at the local pub, making a wager.
Established in 1858, this particular pub was a local hub, surrounded by leafy eucalypt forest and offering a bistro, bar, and licensed gaming, or the “pokies,” as Australians call them. Given the annual horse racing carnival was in full swing, not surprisingly they were carrying an unusually large amount of cash for a Monday.
BANG!
The windows rattled. Patrons nervously looked around, and the murmuring started, growing louder as people clamoured for a better outside view.
What they found, right there on the steps of the building entrance, was a uniformed Armaguard security guard. Moments earlier, they had barely noticed him walking past with the full cash bag he had just collected. Now he lay horizontal, blood pooling around his head, while a dazed, uninjured colleague stood nearby. In the background, two men were a fast, blurry image, fleeing the scene in a white sedan.
