A BAR manager held off three knife-wielding robbers by putting his weight behind a door they were trying to break down.
Robert Woods, 46, stood up to the masked men – armed with 12” and 6” blades and a crow bar – who were demanding access to the safe at The Knot pub in Whitby Road, Ellesmere Port,at about 8pm last Friday.
He came across the thugs in the upstairs of the pub while visiting the toilet, but feared for the licensees’ 12-year-old daughter who was on the premises, and a barmaid who was in the shower.
He said: “They said ‘where’s the f-ing keys’. I swore at them, being a Scouser, and backed off into the hallway. I said I hadn’t got the keys and as I backed off they came towards me brandishing the knives.”
Mr Woods, who says he can ‘handle himself’, said he took shelter behind a door but could only place his weight against it as it didn’t have a lock.
At the same time he dialled 999 on his mobile phone and shouted that he was calling the police. Hearing the commotion, the barmaid brought two male customers upstairs and the robbers fled empty-handed.
Mr Woods said the licensees’ daughter would no longer go upstairs and the barmaid was nervous.
“They need catching. The next person they try it on with might get hurt,” added Mr Woods.
The raiders broke in by climbing on to a flat roof via a rear fire escape, before smashing a window to gain entry to a disused function room.
Using a crowbar, they forced an interior door to enter the office area on the first floor where they were disturbed by the manager.
Witnesses or anybody who can help is asked to contact DC Nadine Sturgess on 0845 458 0000 or Crimestoppers hotline on 0800 555 111.
