A liquor shop owner is “appalled” by “less than satisfactory” response from Police emergency services after his store manager had locked a robber inside the shop and called the emergency line 111 to seek immediate help.
The incident took place in a liquor shop at New Market on Sunday, April 2, at around 5 p.m. when an offender who had returned to the shop after having escaped earlier in the day without paying for the bottles, possibly to try his luck again, only to be identified by the store manager.
The store manager immediately put the shutter down and called the police before informing the store owner.
What happened from here has left the store manager and the store owner aghast and in disbelief.
The store owner, Rutul Jani, who was at Lynnfield at the time when his store manager had called to inform about the fact of a robber being locked inside the shop managed to reach the shop in next 20 minutes only to find that police had still not arrived on the scene.
Surprised by the delay in the arrival of police, Mr Jani chose to walk to the Police station across the road and get help.
Two policemen had accompanied Mr Jani immediately from the police station, but almost after half an hour of their first call to the police emergency line.
However, the emergency response team did not arrive altogether.
Nevertheless, this was not the end of their story about frustration with police response to a situation which could have easily worsened and risked the safety of his staff and a member of the public who was also locked inside the shop.
Speaking to Indian Weekender, the store manager Chintan Patel, who was at the forefront of this saga described the situation as “scary and tense” when inside the shop with the robber.
“Earlier in the day two offenders had escaped with bottles, and then one of them returned to the shop to get more stuff from the shop.
I recognised him immediately and brought the shop’s shutter down,” Mr Patel said.
“Although my first reaction was to hold that guy in the shop and get the police take him away, the situation got tense as increasingly it became evident that police would not be coming anytime soon.
“I became more and more scared and confused while speaking with the operator on the emergency line,” Mr Patel further said.
The fact that police emergency team chose not to come to the scene immediately even after being categorically told by the store manager that robber was still locked inside the store is a cause of concern.
“The operator kept on asking me about the looks and appearance of the robber and also told that police would not be able to come before 30 minutes.
Eventually, based on our conversation on the phone, the operator issued a trespass notice for that robber and asked me to open the store and let that guy go,” a visibly baffled Mr Patel said.
By the time, store owner Mr Jani managed to bring Police on his own from the nearest police station; the store manager was advised by the operator on the emergency line to allow the robber to leave.
Sunny Kaushal, a community leader and the lead organiser of Crime Prevention Group, a new community initiative formed to raise awareness and solidarity about the increasing numbers of aggravated robberies on local businesses expressed his dismay on the failure of police to respond in a timely manner.
“If members of public and shopkeepers have to go to Police station, literally begging them to come and catch the offenders then it is very shameful for the New Zealand police and the Minister,” Mr Kaushal said.
This was the fifth robbery incident reported by the community directly to the Crime Prevention Group indicating that the group is getting some momentum in the community on the issue of robberies and aggravated assaults.