There are three tobacconists in a strip of no more than a dozen shops on the same side of a street in Melbourne’s west. Earlier this year, someone reached between the metal bars protecting one shop, smashed the front window and flung a molotov cocktail inside.
Eight days later, a driver rammed the security screen at a second store and tried to set it alight before fleeing. A jerry can was left on the street as if in homage to the failed arson.
