Dawesville robbery: victim speaks out after man on motorcycle snatched her bag and threatened her with a knife

Lorraine was 15m from her home when a man came up from behind her on a motorbike and attempted to grab her handbag.

“He leaned over and said ‘give me your purse’,” Lorraine said. “I said ‘no, you’re wasting your time, there’s no money in it’.

“He just kept saying ‘give me your purse, give me your purse’. He produced a knife from the side of the bike and pointed the knife at me.”

Lorraine said the knife was a yellow-handled fishing knife.

“Then he started snatching at my purse; he eventually got the purse off me but he lost control of the bike,” she said.

“So he started to abuse me and he dropped the purse.

“While he leaned down, he knocked the petrol cap off the motorbike and all the petrol started coming out of the tank.

“He was not happy about that and he started abusing me about that.”

Lorraine said the man kicked her in the leg when she leant down to pick up her purse.

“He sent me flying, so after that I thought ‘nope, I’ve had enough of this, I’ve got to get out of here’,” she said. “I began running down the street screaming ‘help me, help me’.”

It was then that Lorraine turned around and noticed the man had a tattoo at the top of his right arm and the bike had no numberplates.

“I’ve been warning the neighbours and they’ve been shocked because things like that don’t happen down our way,” she said. “I want to get it out there to let people know things like this are happening everywhere.

“It’s going to happen again if they don’t get him.”

Lorraine said the man was nervous because “he was a bit clumsy”.

“I keep seeing the helmet and I keep seeing the knife and it keeps playing over and over again,” she said. “I’m still walking my dog and I’m going to take something, so god help him if he comes back.”

Lorraine said her neighbour had her car broken into by a man on a motorbike about a year ago.

Senior Detective Dan Major said Lorraine was walking her dog at 12.10pm along a pathway running parallel to Gregory Road, near Albany Drive, when the man attacked.

After a brief struggle, he fled on the motorcycle with Lorraine’s handbag. He was last seen riding north towards Dunsborough Court.

Lorraine described the man as being in his early 20s, with olive skin and a slim build. It was believed he had a tattoo of black lettering or a symbol on his right shoulder.

He was wearing a black and white motorcycle helmet with a dark tinted visor, a black singlet, jeans and motorcycle boots, and riding a black coloured off-road motorcycle.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.