A BOMADERRY businesswoman is considering closing her business after being continually harassed by a group of teenagers who last week threatened to kill an employee.
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Debbie Abello, who has run Deb’s Affordable Products in the Bomaderry Plaza for the past two-and-a-half years, said harassment by a group of sometimes up to seven teenagers, aged between 10 and 15, over the past six weeks was out of hand.
“They barge into the store, abuse me and customers and generally run amok,” she said.
The attacks culminated last Thursday when an employee was shoved by one of the group, who threatened to “kill her”.
“They just came in and went wild. When my employee spoke up they shoved her, swept everything off the counter, including the eftpos machine and then threw a ball from the shop at her,” Ms Abello said.
Police attended the shop on Friday morning but by Friday afternoon members of the group were back, this time abusing Ms Abello’s sister, who was manning the store.
“They were screaming at her. Abusing her,” she said.
“We had two customers with a small child in the store at the time and they hid in one of the back aisles.
“My sister was that worried she rang triple zero and once they were gone locked the doors with the customers inside just so they were safe.”
Ms Abello has been forced to remove a kinetic sand display she installed for young children to play with, after the group targeted it and had a sand fight throughout the store.
“They come in all different times of the days and range in numbers from two, four and up to seven,” she said.
“There are both boys and girls, with the girls possibly the worst. It was a girl who pushed the employee, threatened her and swept the counter.
“They swear their heads off and call me and my staff and customers every profanity under the sun.”
They swear their heads off and call me and my staff and customers every profanity under the sun
- Debbie Abello
Ms Abello said she was trying to build the business and meet the community’s needs but after the latest incident was wondering why she bothered.
“The stress is so much. I’m waking up in the middle of the night after dreaming about them being in the store.
“It’s disheartening. You try and do something for your community and help to revitalise Bomaderry and you get treated like this.”
Ms Abello’s business is not tucked away inside the Plaza but fronts the Meroo Street.
She took her plight to social media at the weekend and was overwhelmed by the response she received.
“I even had people offer to come and stand in the store and act as security guards,” she said.
Ms Abello reopened her store on Monday morning but said she was reassessing her options.
