A Canberra man accused of plotting to rob a south-side supermarket was allegedly secretly recorded proposing and planning the heist with a co-offender over the phone, a jury has heard.
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But the pair never got as far as the front door, with tactical police "jumping out of some bushes" as they scoped out their alleged target.
The recordings have been played to an ACT Supreme Court jury in the trial of a 34-year-old man accused of conspiring to rob the Woolworths supermarket in Kambah in January last year.
Neither he nor his co-accused – a key Crown witness – can be named for legal reasons. The Canberra Times has decided to refer to them as Persons A and B respectively for the sake of clarity.
The covert recordings reveal Person A talking about "taking a look at a little something something", sitting in a park with binoculars watching the staff counting up the takings and the fact there would be "one emergency call tonight...that's how I f***ing roll".
Person A has pleaded not guilty, and his barrister Shane Gill on Monday morning said the key question was whether his client planned a robbery, using violence, or merely a "snatch and grab".
"You might think what you've got is a plan to steal, not to rob. That's the thing in this case that requires the most careful consideration."
Mr Gill suggest police laid a "loaded up charge" against his client, and urged the jury to consider what Person B might get out of giving evidence against the accused.
Person B entered the witness box on Monday morning for the prosecution.
When asked by prosecutor Shane Drumgold he said "a little something something" was a reference to "some sort of criminal activity, like a job".
They discussed "big black bags, like you see in the movies" and "the last 10 minutes", which Person B said he understood to be references to the cash bags and entering the store 10 minutes before closing time.
"We agreed we'd go in in the last 10 minutes, how we'd go in, it was either going through the front doors while the front doors were still open or with the pinch bar, smashing a window," the witness told the court.
Person B said on the morning of the alleged robbery he armed himself with a knife from his kitchen, although he couldn't remember having discussed bringing the weapon with the accused and said Person A spoke of not needing a knife himself.
In another recorded call the pair discussed hearing a news bulletin about 100 emergency calls made the previous evening due to bad weather.
"But there'll be one emergency call tonight, don't you worry about that. That's how I f***ing roll," Person A said.
Person B said the pair sat around playing video games and drinking tea and coffee for several hours before riding their bicycles to the store and putting them in some bushes and starting to walk around the Woolworths.
"Before we managed to take a lap TRG [Tactical Response Group] jumped out of some bushes and said 'freeze'," he told the jury.
The pair were in possession of a bag containing a pinch bar, two beanies, gloves and pieces of cloth Person B said were to be used as balaclavas.
The trial before Justice John Burns continues.
