{"id":17526,"date":"2026-05-24T11:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/17526\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T11:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:02:12","slug":"man-charged-after-allegedly-threatening-14yo-restaurant-worker-with-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/17526\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged after allegedly threatening 14yo restaurant worker with knife"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man will remain behind bars after being accused of threatening a 14-year-old restaurant worker while trying to rob a NSW Central Coast business at knifepoint.<\/p>\n

Police say the 30-year-old, wearing a balaclava, walked into the Long Jetty Chinese Restaurant near The Entrance just before 6:30pm on Saturday and demanded money.<\/p>\n

Police have praised the swift, brave actions of two men who were dining at the restaurant at the time, when they “intervened and managed to apprehend” the alleged offender.<\/p>\n

One man, 55, sustained stab wounds to his neck and was flown to a Sydney hospital where he remains in a serious condition.<\/p>\n

A second man, also 55, suffered cuts to his hand, and his since been discharged from Gosford Hospital.<\/p>\n

The 14-year-old girl was not injured.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Chad Gillies from the Tuggerah Lakes Police District said it was a shocking experience for everyone involved.<\/p>\n

“It’s absolutely cowardly; it’s horrific for me, as a police commander, that that would occur,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Anyone that threatens anyone is a risk, but certainly when you’re threatening a [young] shop attendant, it’s completely unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Superintendent Chad Gillies says the alleged incident was shocking and cowardly. (ABC News: Mary-Louise Vince)<\/p>\n

He said police would work with staff and the community to ensure she had adequate support.<\/p>\n

Adrian Wargent, 30, was arrested at the restaurant and taken to Wyong Police Station.<\/p>\n

He was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rob with wounding\/grievous bodily harm.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Gillies described it as a brazen act, and an unusual type of crime for the area.<\/p>\n

“It was very brazen to be going in at that time of night; it’s a busy time of night for those types of restaurants,” he said.<\/p>\n

Restaurant employee Lian Phua was busy in the kitchen when he said he heard someone screaming, “You put down the knife.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lian Phua has worked at the Long Jetty Chinese for 10 years. (ABC News: Mary-Louise Vince)<\/p>\n

At the time, he said he “was just thinking of the two men” who grabbed the alleged offender and he feared other restaurant patrons could be injured.<\/p>\n

He said he spent Sunday morning in church praying for the two men who were injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Wargent did not apply for bail and it was formally refused during a bail court hearing on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The matter will return to court in late July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man will remain behind bars after being accused of threatening a 14-year-old restaurant worker while trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12258,22,21,17363,1109,17362,17360,17364,17361,17366,17365],"class_list":["post-17526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-armed-robbery","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-central-coast-robbery","tag-court","tag-good-samaritans","tag-long-jetty","tag-long-jetty-robbery","tag-restaurant-robbery","tag-restaurant-worker-threatened-with-knife","tag-teen-worker-threatened"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}