A worker inside a Muswellbrook Laundromat said she was completely caught off guard when a man ran through the building after fleeing from the courthouse across the road.
The Scone man just seconds earlier had been refused bail after Magistrate Kevin Hockey ruled to do so, would present an unacceptable risk.
47-year-old Matthew Campbell was facing court for the first time since his arrest about 12 hours earlier.
Sienna, who works at the Muswellbrook Laundromat told the Hunter Valley Newsroom, it was the last thing she expected to happen.
“He just came running through. Just shoved me, pretty much all of the workers out of the way and went out the back door,” she said.
“He’s grabbed a shelf as well and thrown it on the ground to distract the coppers chasing him.”
Mr Campbell was recaptured inside the nearby Royal Hotel having a shower in an upstairs bathroom.