A dairy in Napier was robbed at gunpoint on Friday, September 16 by a group of three people. The robbers entered the League Park Dairy at about 6:30 p.m. when dairy owner Hetal Shastri and shop assistant Neha Chaudhary were present at the shop. One of them pointed a rifle at the Shastri and took away cigarettes worth $1000 and $900 cash from them, Hawke’s Bay Today reported.
As per the latest update on Wednesday, September 21, Napier police was still looking for the robbers. The robbers are reported to have fled across Taradale Road in the direction of Marewa Park and are believed to have run into Morse St through Henry Hill Street.
However, the shop assistant Chaudhary has told the police that one of the robbers, a woman, came back to the dairy as a genuine customer with two girls to buy milk and hand cream on Monday, September 19.
Police is inspecting the CCTV images to check the possibility of the robber’s return after the robbery.
In less then four month, a string of robbery cases have been registered in the Hawke’s Bay area but this was the first at gunpoint. There has been a rise in the number of robberies targeting tobacco products since May 26, the day when further increase in the cigarette and tobacco prices was confirmed in the 2016 budget.
The number of armed robberies has also risen recently, in Auckland. As reported by Indian Weekender in its September16 issue, recently a West Auckland dairy owner Ayub Sacha was robbed of $4000 cash and $2000 worth of cigarettes at gunpoint.