Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Porkin’ Co-Owner Manfred Mletsim says he’s having to look the door of his cafe to protect staff and customers from crime

Transcript

Porkin’ Co-Owner Manfred Mletsim says he’s having to look the door of his cafe to protect staff and customers from crime · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There has been a lot of discussion over recent days
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and weeks even longer. Let's be honest about some of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the issues that we have when it comes to crime
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and anti social behavior and a nightcliff business is going
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to drastic measures to protect their building, their staff and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: also customers from crime, locking the doors during the day.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It comes after a sixty eight percent rising commercial break
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: ins compared to the same period last year. And the owner,
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  Speaker 1: the co owner, i should say, of that business, Pork
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  Speaker 1: and co Manfred Milts Millscombe joins me on the line
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  Speaker 1: right now. Good morning to you, Manfred. True business Manfred,
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  Speaker 1: have things been going? How have things been going at
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  Speaker 1: your business? And have you been targeted by thieves?
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  Speaker 2: It feels like we've a business in perfect July and
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  Speaker 2: it's just like at the beginning of one two times
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  Speaker 2: a week, but now it's been like constantly, especially in
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the past week.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we're just having a bit of an issue
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  Speaker 1: with the phone line there man for hopefully we're able
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  Speaker 1: to sort it out. But sorry, what did you say
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  Speaker 1: you had been targeted a couple of times a week.
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  Speaker 2: That was at the beginning of the when we took
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: over the business here, But now it's just like constantly
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  Speaker 2: every day almost it's been like I don't want to
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  Speaker 2: jinx it, but it's been like a couple of past
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: days it's been bit better now.
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  Speaker 1: Man, for tell us exactly what you've been experiencing. When
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  Speaker 1: it comes to those issues of crime and anti social behavior.
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  Speaker 2: It's get the people coming to the store and thinking
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  Speaker 2: that they can live without pains. You know, it's just
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  Speaker 2: gets to that moment like what do I do here?
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  Speaker 2: You know, you're apprehend and tell that the person I
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: saw you putting that into your pocket or it's down
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  Speaker 2: your pants your back. Well, majority of the times I
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  Speaker 2: don't want that thing back for what is down there
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  Speaker 2: in their pants, but you know, it's just but usually
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  Speaker 2: and I would say to myself as well, if they
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  Speaker 2: don't give it back and they get aggressive, just like
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  Speaker 2: you waste my time, you know, because I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to put you into yourself into a situation where you
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  Speaker 2: have to fight someone.
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  Speaker 1: Oh exactly. You don't want them to be in danger,
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  Speaker 1: and you don't want yourself for your staff to be
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  Speaker 1: in a dangerous situation.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know. And then it's the safety of my
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  Speaker 2: stuff is very important to me, you know, And that's
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  Speaker 2: what we've said, and we've taken that traffic measure. If
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  Speaker 2: you don't feel safe at the shop, please lock the door.
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  Speaker 2: And I know we're not the only business who who
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  Speaker 2: does that here in the area.
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  Speaker 1: So you have taken that that approach, that's if things
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  Speaker 1: are unsafe, keep the door locked, keep that front door locked.
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  Speaker 1: And what's sort of driven that s what's driven that approach?
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  Speaker 1: Is it the fact that you have had people coming
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  Speaker 1: in and trying to steal.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but but that way we can limit and you know,
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  Speaker 2: kind of say, hey, we're letting people in one by one,
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  Speaker 2: you know, but I don't want to do that as
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  Speaker 2: a business owner. I want my customers to come to
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  Speaker 2: the shop and be safe, you know, and enjoy and
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  Speaker 2: look at the products and what they want to buy,
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  Speaker 2: you know, or have a good time and sit down
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: in the cafe area.
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  Speaker 1: Are you worried that it is going to keep customers
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  Speaker 1: out as well as things if you do have to
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  Speaker 1: continue to take that approach.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I actually do believe that. And it's not only
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  Speaker 2: for us, you know, it's the hospitality interesting the industry
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  Speaker 2: in general. You know, that's the suffering out of this,
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  Speaker 2: you know, descrime and social behavior, you know, because quite
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  Speaker 2: often people take for money in front of the store,
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  Speaker 2: you know. And I would say to the people as well, like, look,
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  Speaker 2: if you're hungry to come and talk to me, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm happy to donate, you know, a couple of sandwiches
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  Speaker 2: for you if you're really hungry or anything. It's now
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to kick you away. It's not a crime,
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  Speaker 2: you know to do that. But if you come and steal,
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  Speaker 2: that's a problem for me.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Well that's exactly right, and make it and it makes
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  Speaker 1: it really difficult to be able to run your business
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  Speaker 1: and to be able to just have a safe, open
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  Speaker 1: place that you know that people want to come in
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  Speaker 1: and visits.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we have a couple of schools around this area,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: you know. And then quite often it's just I feel
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  Speaker 2: for these kegs as roll you know, sometimes he's come
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  Speaker 2: to the score, you know, and they have to see that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and then it's really unfortunately, are.
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  Speaker 1: You worried that you know, or are you implementing or
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  Speaker 1: should ask any other sort of security measures as well,
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  Speaker 1: or what kind of you know, what kind of level
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  Speaker 1: of security have your head to get to.
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  Speaker 2: So we're actually engaged with the local security COMPYMPTHY in
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  Speaker 2: Neptunet and what we saw with the Karma and Malak
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  Speaker 2: then having the public order response Unity was we heard
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  Speaker 2: from that community that it's been working and it's been
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  Speaker 2: reducing I mean, it's not a long term solution, but
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  Speaker 2: it's it's kind of like a short term and we
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  Speaker 2: need to do something right now because having that security
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  Speaker 2: on every now and then at nighttime, it's been helping us.
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  Speaker 2: It's been driving away that bit of behavior from here,
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  Speaker 2: and it's it's it's it's kind of like we feel safer,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I can actually go and talk to the
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  Speaker 2: customer over ather than attending a situation that I don't
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  Speaker 2: want to deal with, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Manfred, have you have you raised the concerns with
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  Speaker 1: the governmental with your local member?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, Obviously our chief Minister and about is a
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  Speaker 2: local member and I've been reaching out to her. I
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  Speaker 2: do believe that I'll be actually meeting her in about
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  Speaker 2: fifteen minutes so we can have a chair and talk
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  Speaker 2: to the police as well. At the same time. It's
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  Speaker 2: not it's not only ours, it's all the other businesses
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  Speaker 2: around here as well. On the URL, his history and
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  Speaker 2: we just we have that community minded like what can
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  Speaker 2: we do and what can we do better, you know,
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  Speaker 2: to reduce this and who do we go to. Let's
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  Speaker 2: let's find a holistic solution to this, you know, as
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  Speaker 2: a community. You know, we're not pointing fingers because we
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  Speaker 2: know the police is doing a wonderful job as well,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and they're helping us as as as they can,
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  Speaker 2: but we know quite often that they have other business
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  Speaker 2: to attend, which which can be more more yeah, busy,
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  Speaker 2: or much more important at that moment.
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  Speaker 1: Man, from what are you hoping look from that meeting
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  Speaker 1: with the finister, who's also of course the local member.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: What are you hoping to kind of get out of
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that meeting today? And ultimately what do you want to
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  Speaker 1: see here? I'm assuming it is a situation where you
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: want to see less of this, you know, of these
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  Speaker 1: issues so that you can run your business safely.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I believe that we want even a more security president
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  Speaker 2: or police presidence in the area. And just just because
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  Speaker 2: we've been trying to reduce some of the things ourselves,
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  Speaker 2: you know, not sore for selling certain alcohol products or
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: you know, trying to talk to the people as well,
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  Speaker 2: what is trving you to do this. You know, it's
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  Speaker 2: just a it's just kind of to have more of
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  Speaker 2: that safety in the neighborhood.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, man Fred, I really appreciate you having a chat
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning. I do holpe that that meeting
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  Speaker 1: today does help in some way to try to see
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  Speaker 1: a reduction in the level of issues that you're seeing
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  Speaker 1: there at PORLK and Co. Because you know, fundamentally you're
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: trying to run a business. You want to be able
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  Speaker 1: to run that business. You want yourself to feel safe,
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  Speaker 1: the staff to feel safe, and customers to feel safe.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it just says it's the whole community, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like we want to feel safe here. It's not I know,
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  Speaker 2: it's not only Nightclift here. It's I live in part
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  Speaker 2: myself and I know there's problems like that over there
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  Speaker 2: as well, you know, So it's just it's the whole
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  Speaker 2: Darwin area. We all want to feel safe and be
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  Speaker 2: your friends to get it, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely well man for PORLK and Co. Owner, I
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time and keep us
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  Speaker 1: up to date. Let us know how you go with
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that meeting. But I really hope you know that you're
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: able to see some change so that you can run
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: your business and run it in the way that you
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  Speaker 1: want to and you're not having to lock yourselves in.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, And thank you for having that song, Sadie.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you