The law in New Zealand is too soft on young offenders, says the owner of an Auckland dairy which was robbed at gunpoint last week.
Tahir Ketan, of Edendale Dairy in Sandringham Rd, said the law must be toughened to deter young people from a life of crime.
The dairy was attacked between 8.15am and 8.30am on Saturday, February 28, when three males, two of them masked, demanded cash and cigarettes.
One of the three waved a gun at shopkeeper Ketan’s wife Shazia Hussain before they made off with $400 cash and $500 worth of cigarettes, as well as chocolate bars and ice-creams.
Two young people have been arrested in connection with the robbery. One was a 14-year-old and the other was also a teenager.
“It is hard for people like us to make a living when things like this happen,” Ketan, 41, told sandesh.co.nz.
“We have moved from elsewhere to a new home here, and jobs are not easy to come by in these hard economic times,” said Ketan, who is originally from Pakistan.
Shazia, 31, who became a new mum just two months ago, is traumatised by the attack and won’t serve the counter anymore.
Their two-month-old son, Abdullah, was sleeping in a back room in the dairy complex when the attack took place. Ketan was not at home at the time.
“I am slowly coming around to it, but find it hard to sleep at night. Every time I close my eyes, I see the gun staring at me,” Shazia, 31, said.
“The law in this country is not tough enough on young people. That’s why they get onto bigger crimes later in their lives.
“Laws need to be tougher for the young people.”
Shazia and Tahir have another child, two-and-a-half-year-old Mariam.
This attack on a dairy is the latest in a spate of attacks on dairies last year – one incident left an 18-year-old dead in Manurewa.
Several liquor outlets have also been attacked.
Tahir Ketan is hopeful a collective voice for dairy owners will help make a difference in making their workplaces for secure.