Two witnesses tackled a woman to the ground after she allegedly used a machete to hold up a busy supermarket on Sydney's lower north shore during Tuesday night's evening rush.
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The men restrained the woman, 31, until police arrived and arrested her.
One of those men, Nick, told Channel Nine he had gone to Woolworths on Rangers Road in Neutral Bay to buy a sweet potato.
Nick, who did not give his last name, said he "kind of walked in the front door [of the supermarket] and all hell was breaking loose".
Nick began filming as the woman, who was wearing black and with the lower half of her face covered, pulled out the machete while standing next to a young male supermarket worker at a checkout.
Police allege the woman had first confronted supermarket staff and started stealing items from the service counter, before she allegedly "produced a machete and threatened a staff member".
The supermarket was busy with shoppers as the woman made her way through the store about 6.30pm.
"She was basically just telling everyone to open the tills," Nick said.
"She was going from till to till to till, until she worked out she actually couldn't get any of them open. I guess that's when it became very serious, because ... she actually cornered one of the young attendants in one of the checkout aisles."
Nick said he approached the woman, who then chased him out the supermarket's front door.
He said the woman continued down Rangers Road to Military Road, where she was nearly hit by a truck while crossing.
Nick said another man, Victor, approached him and said they had to stop her.
"I grabbed her from behind in a big bear hug and kind of lifted her off the ground as much as I could," Nick said.
"He [Victor] ran in from the right-hand side, grabbed both of her hands. He must have put pressure on her wrist or something like that, got the machete off her and threw it away.
"Then I've literally lifted her off the ground and placed her on the ground gently - not really. And then we just kind of held her until the cops came. By that time, we could already hear sirens."
Police arrived a short time later and arrested the woman, before taking her to North Sydney police station.
She was charged overnight with larceny, being armed with intent to rob using an offensive weapon, wielding a knife in a public place, common assault, and being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence.
She was refused police bail and is due to appear in Sydney's Central Local Court on Wednesday.
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