Shop offers reward after vicious Christmas Eve robbery

Jan 6 2009 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A HUDDERSFIELD shop has offered a £2,500 reward in a bid to catch a vicious robber.

The thief stole shop takings from one of Greenwoods’ menswear staff as she went to bank the cash from the King Street store.

The robbery happened on Christmas Eve and police are still hunting the thug.

The man attacked the woman employee, who is in her mid-40s, as she reached the NatWest’s New Street branch with takings totalling £2,400.

Seconds earlier she had walked through the Packhorse Centre into Market Place, before crossing New Street on her way to the NatWest.

Greenwoods store manager Andrew Varley said the woman had been very shaken by the attack, which happened at 12.15pm at the height of the Christmas Eve shopping rush.

He said: “She was grabbed round the throat, kneed in the back and wrestled to the ground.”

Mr Varley said it was not thought the attacker had followed her from Greenwoods.

But a man matching the description of the robber was spotted on CCTV walking behind the woman as she walked past Barclays Bank in Market Place.

The woman had been carrying the money wrapped in a carrier bag and kept inside her coat.