The owners of a newsagency which sold a $63million lotto ticket have been forced to close the doors and sell the business because of relentless shoplifting.
Tania and Kevin Parkes who ran City News Kalgoorlie in Western Australia‘s Goldfields-Esperance region east of Perth for almost a decade shut up shop on Saturday ahead of news owners taking over in July.
Fed up by thieves stealing items from the store, the couple made the difficult decision to sell the newsagency.
Mrs Parkes told Daily Mail Australia that the level of theft in the gold mining town was too much to handle for the couple who have owned the business since 2015.
‘We just couldn’t work there under those conditions,’ she said.
Tania Parkes (pictured left) and her husband Kevin (pictured right) have been forced to sell the City News Kalgoorlie newsagency after the proud business owners became fed up by thieves
She said her husband Kevin, who lost his leg 20 years ago and needs back surgery after a nasty fall in December 2022, is devastated by having to close the business.
‘We’ve put off his surgery for our customers but he’s got to that point where he just needs to come first now.’
The newsagency made headlines in 2022 for selling the winning ticket in the $63million Powerball draw to a group of 250 locals named ‘Goldfield, let’s pay our mortgages’.
The couple say the store has been the victim of theft almost every day but Mrs Parkes said she’d finally had enough after an incident last month.
Mr and Mrs Parkes had decided to keep the newsagency open on January 18 despite it being a sweltering day with temperatures reaching 42C.
After the power went out the night before they were forced to use a back-up generator to power the fridge to keep drinks cold for customers.
The couple say an Indigenous woman walked into the newsagency around 8.30am, took a bottle of Coke and walked out of the store without paying for it.
Mrs Parkes politely confronted the woman and asked her to foot the bill for the item before things got heated.
The couple’s (pictured) newsagency made headlines in 2022 when they sold the winning ticket to the $63million Powerball
‘I’ve called her over and she’s just turned around and gone, ‘F**k you, you white c****’ and walked out.’
Mrs Parkes then said the woman lunged at her with the drink can.
‘She slapped me across the face with [the can] and grabbed my hair and tried to pull me to the ground.’
Mrs Parkes said the woman was holding a pair of scissors which were held up at her throat.
The woman then ran away leaving Mrs Parkes with a bloodied finger after another elderly customer helped pull the two women away from one another.
Police arrested the woman last month before she pleaded guilty to stealing, criminal damage and common assault.
However, Mrs Parkes says she was disappointed that the magistrate appeared to accept the woman’s version of events after she told the court that she was going to pay for the coke but was ‘chased’ out of the store, perhaps because of ‘prejudice’.
Mrs Parkes, who has an Aboriginal father, said she felt misrepresented by the magistrate’s verdict.
The business (pictured) owned by Mr and Mrs Parkes since 2015 shut up shop on Saturday and will be handed over to new owners
‘To not be able to get our experience across properly… is such a wrong system,’ she said.
She said that increased police presence in the area since the incident wasn’t enough to convince her to keep the store open.
Many businesses in the area have closed down or moved elsewhere due to shoplifting.
She uploaded a heartbreaking post on the City News Kalgoorlie Facebook page on Saturday moments after she served her final customer.
‘Final time as owners of City News Kalgoorlie…’ Mrs Parkes said.
The couple will be moving down to Perth where their children live as Mrs Parkes cares for her husband while supporting her daughter’s business.
The new owners will take over the newsagency in July.
‘I’ll be back for the handover and then we’ll have a big final farewell to Kalgoorlie,’ Mrs Parkes said.
