A group of international students are living in fear after being robbed at knifepoint in the middle of the night in their South Auckland home.
Seven students had been living in a close huddle in one single bedroom in their three-bedroom house in Papatoetoe, South Auckland, since last Saturday, July 8, when they were woken up to a rude shock of two knife-wielding men appearing inside the property.
Two armed offenders barged into the home (one had entered through a window and the other gained entry by getting the main door forcefully opened), threatened residents of the property with a knife and escaped with items worth of $15-20,000 including mobiles, laptops, electronic items, branded jackets and shoes in three bags.
The incident has left the resident of the property – a group of international students – completely shocked and scared without much emotional support at the hand.
However, the police is treating this incident as a burglary and not robbery, which is definitely their prerogative, though raising some concern in the community.
What happened?
Jagdeep Singh, 22, was asleep in his room when he was woken by some unfamiliar noise in his bedroom only to find an armed intruder trying to use a lighter to find an electric switch for the room.
Moments later, he found a knife being placed around his neck with a stern warning from the masked intruder to remain silent and cooperate.
The window that was break-opened by the burglars (Pic: IWK Picture)
The offender forced him to wake up another student sleeping along with him in the same bedroom and then to open the main door of the house to allow his fellow accomplice inside the property.
The second intruder who was taller and more heavily built walked straightaway to the nearby kitchen to grab a big chopping knife to scare the occupants of the property.
From there on, the offenders collected mobiles laptops and expensive clothing from drawers of different rooms without waking the remaining students.
Apparently, offenders remained for 30-40 minutes inside the property with a knife placed on one of the men in the property while the other swung wildly threatening three other students in the scene.
Three other unsuspecting students out of the total seven were asleep in their rooms.
Stunned by the brazenness of the knife-wielding offenders, students immediately called the police, which arrived within five minutes of the call – pretty much when they were on the phone talking to the operator.
Living in perpetual fear
"We have been living in fear since Saturday night.
"We are too scared as we do not know when another armed intruder might appear inside our property," said Jasgit Singh, one of the occupants living in the property.
"As soon as night sets in we huddle together in one bedroom as everyone is too scared.
"We are even scared of going to the washroom or kitchen alone in the night," said Lovepreet Singh, 21, another resident in the property.
Fearing safety of their children in an overseas country some of the parents back in India have asked their children to return to India.
"Our parents are asking us to return immediately. But we cannot go as we have taken a lot of loans from banks to finance our studies," said another exasperated roommate Loveleen Dhillon, 21.
"But we are seriously thinking to change the house as you never know that you are continuously stalked," Mr Dhillon said.
The suitcase of one of the occupants cut by the burglars (Pic: IWK Picture)
Police action
The initial police action was quick and sharp with a police car arriving at the scene within minutes of reporting of the incident.
In fact, the first police car had arrived when the residents were on the phone with the police operator.
It was followed by few more police cars and a crime investigation team arriving at the scene shortly.
However, despite this initial prompt response from the police there seems to remain some room for improvement for the police.
Students were able to inform the police present on the scene that they have received bank notification warning that their bank cards have been used 4-5 times in one BP station in Manurewa a short while ago.
Assuming that this was a critical piece of information and much-needed clue that could help some immediate arrests and recovery of their stolen items, students were hopeful of some immediate follow-up action by the police staff on the scene.
In this regard, they were disappointed to be only told casually that they would look into it later (apparently suggesting that NZ Police did not have the technology and resources to chase offenders).
The burgled house in Papatoetoe (Pic: IWK Picture)
However, The Indian Weekender’s enquiry to police was returned with an assurance that Police did take follow-up actions on the night.
“Information regarding bank cards was given to police and followed up on the night of the incident and CCTV footage has been obtained as a result,” Detective Senior Sergeant Kevin McNaughton told The Indian Weekender.
“Police attended at the address on the night of the burglary and have made a number of enquiries since the offence,” Sergeant McNaughton further added.
Concern for the community
As though the news of rising incidents of aggravated robberies and assaults on the small business owners within the community was not enough, this news of brazen invasion which police is calling as burglary (not even an aggravated burglary) in the middle of the night in a home is a matter of concern for the community.
While any instance of the use of an arm or threatening to use arm can be scary for its victims, the effect on international students can be slightly more devastating purely because of the fact of students being on their own without the much emotional support of family and friends in the new country.
Three of the seven occupants of the house burgled in Papatoetoe (Pic: IWK Picture)
The brazenness in this instance where offenders have remained in the property for almost 30-40 minutes, opportunistically choosing branded jackets and shoes from the drawer as if on a shopping spree in a mall demonstrates their absolute lack of fear and respect for the law and any consequences arising from their indulgence in such acts.
This should be a major concern for law enforcement agencies, authorities and policy makers beyond the Kiwi-Indian community.
Another area of concern, particularly for the Kiwi-Indian community is the apparent gap in offering adequate compassion and empathy to the victims of robbery or burglary as police prefer to call this incident.
While victims in this instance continue to reiterate that no adequate victim support services were offered to them by the police The Indian Weekender had been told by the police that “Victim Support was offered to the occupants on the night and again since.”
It seems that there is a clear gap in expectation.
To be fair to the police, it could be a possibility of language or cultural barrier resulting in a communication gap when offering victim support.
But still that gap needs to be eventually addressed, and it needs to be ensured that victims have adequate support.
This is a gap that ethnic liaison officers have to fulfil without any excuse, every time.
The current gap in the expectations of ethnic communities and the police response needs to bridge sooner, than later.
ISSUE
