The owners of a news agency that sold a lottery ticket worth $63 million have been forced to close its doors and sell the company due to ruthless shoplifting.
Tania and Kevin Parkes, who ran City News Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, east of Perth, closed shop on Saturday for almost a decade before new owners took over in July.
Fed up with thieves stealing items from the store, the couple made the difficult decision to sell the newspaper agency.
Ms Parkes told Daily Mail Australia the number of thefts in the gold mining town was too much for the couple who have owned the business since 2015.
“We simply couldn’t work there under these conditions,” she said.
Tania Parkes (pictured left) and her husband Kevin (pictured right) have been forced to sell news agency City News Kalgoorlie after the proud entrepreneurs got fed up with thieves
She said her husband Kevin, who lost his leg 20 years ago and needs back surgery after a nasty fall in December 2022, was devastated at having to close the business.
“We’ve postponed his surgery for our clients, but he’s gotten to the point where he just has to come first,” she said.
The news agency made headlines in 2022 for selling the winning ticket in a $63 million Powerball drawing to a group of 250 locals called “Goldfield, Let’s Pay Our Mortgages.”
The couple say the store is subject to theft almost every day, but Mrs Parkes said she had finally had enough after an incident last month.
Mr and Mrs Parkes had decided to keep the news agency open on January 18, despite it being a sweltering day with temperatures reaching 42 degrees Celsius.
After the power went out the night before, they had to use a backup generator to power the refrigerator so drinks stayed cold for customers.
The couple says an Indigenous woman walked into the news agency around 8:30 a.m., grabbed a bottle of Coke and walked out of the store without paying for it.
Ms Parkes politely confronted the woman and asked her to pay the bill for the item before things got heated.
The couple’s news agency (pictured) made headlines in 2022 when they sold the winning ticket to the $63 million Powerball
“I called her and she just turned around and said, ‘F**k you, you white c****’ and walked out.”
Ms Parkes then said the woman lunged at her with the drinks can.
“She hit me in the face with (the can), grabbed my hair and tried to pull me to the ground.”
Ms Parkes said the woman was holding a pair of scissors held to her throat.
The woman then ran away, leaving Ms Parkes with a bloody finger after another elderly customer helped pull the two women away from each other.
Police arrested the woman last month before she pleaded guilty to theft, criminal damage and common assault.
However, Ms Parkes said she was disappointed that the magistrate appeared to accept the woman’s version of events after she told the court she was going to pay for the coke but was ‘chased’ from the shop, perhaps because of ‘prejudice’ .
Ms Parkes, who has an Aboriginal father, said she felt misrepresented by the magistrate’s ruling.
The business (pictured), owned by Mr and Mrs Parkes since 2015, closed its doors on Saturday and will be handed over to new owners
“It’s such a flawed system to not convey our experience properly,” she said.
She said the increased police presence in the area since the incident was not enough to convince her to keep the store open.
Many area businesses have closed or relocated due to shoplifting.
She uploaded a heartbreaking post to the City News Kalgoorlie Facebook page on Saturday after serving her end customer.
“Last time as owner of City News Kalgoorlie…” said Mrs Parkes.
The couple move to Perth where their children live, while Mrs Parkes cares for her husband while supporting her daughter’s business.
The new owners will take over the news agency in July.
“I’ll be back for the handover and then we’ll say a grand farewell to Kalgoorlie,” Ms Parkes said.