Botched robbery, two in hospital

The mood at Home Hardware is still sombre two weeks after an alleged botched robbery left two women in hospital one in a critical, but stable condition, however an outpouring of support from the Broome community has touched the hearts of those affected.

Home Hardware owner Ian Brown is still coming to terms with the incident but a book packed with messages of support from customers and clients of the store has proved therapeutic for staff at the store as well as bringing a smile to the face of their colleague Noelene Lee, who regained consciousness late last week in a Perth hospital.

“We’ve had hundreds of signatures and messages of support written in the last two weeks almost everyone who has come in has written something,” he said.

Mr Brown scanned and emailed the first 20 pages of the book to his wife Karen in Perth who passed them onto Mrs Lee’s husband who has been reading them to her.

On Monday Mr Brown said the book was up to 40 pages, including a daily account of the comings and goings at the store to keep Mrs Lee up to date.

“The family has been very moved by the messages in the book and we’ve been touched as well, it’s amazing,” he said.

Meanwhile Lily Chin who was also badly injured in the incident told the Broome Advertiser said she has experienced an equally touching show of support from friends, family and the community.

Ms Chin has been staying with friends since she got out of hospital as she is not comfortable staying at her own home yet.

“I’ve had an amazing response, some friends have heard through Facebook or through other channels but it's been amazing how some old friends who I've not been in contact with for years and ex-clients from my real estate days have heard and have been in contact straight away,” she said.

“I’ve had a huge response from people out of town who are still calling me now that they’ve heard about it.”

Pensive about the incident now Ms Chin believes she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“It also seems I was put there for that reason, being in the wrong place at the wrong time also helped save a life,” she said.

“I’ve been told to take it easy and just be careful, I can’t wait for the pain in my head to go away.”

Ms Chin thanked the police, hospital staff and ambulance crew who helped her and Mrs Lee after the incident.

Three men have been charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm and one count of aggravated assault with intent to rob over the incident and appeared in Broome Magistrate’s court on December 29 and were remanded in custody to appear in the Supreme Court in Perth on January 19.