Robberies in Auckland have become rampant in the past few months, with at least one or two robberies taking place every week. Although police is able to capture the offenders in the next 48-hours or a few days, the incidents of armed robberies are still on a rise.
Four men armed with a knife robbed Patel Superette on Swanson Road in Ranui on the afternoon of Saturday, May 20. The CCTV footage released showed four men in dark hoodie jackets and caps, faces covered in balaclava quietly entering the dairy store at 2:03 p.m. and closing the door of the store.
The woman at the counter (wife of owner Jitu Patel) was pulled out of the counter and threatened with a knife before being pushed to the corner.
One of the offenders then climbed on top of the counter taking cigarette packets from the rack behind and the second offender collected it in a bag. The third accomplice guarded the closed door, and the fourth offender tried opening the cash register. Unable to open with the screwdriver, the offender then pulled out and took the whole cash register with him.
Jitu Patel was threatened with a knife and was trapped behind the bread rack and refrigerator. While trying to pull out the cash register from its power source and then running away with it, the robbers ransacked the counter.
Both Jitu Patel and his wife were unharmed but robbed of cash and cigarettes.
“It is the first time we have become a victim of a robbery in the past 12 years,” Jitu Patel said.
The dairy on Wallace Road in Mangere, South Auckland, was robbed by four armed offenders on Sunday, May 21 at 2:20 p.m. The offenders were armed with a weapon, but no one was injured. They took cash and cigarettes from the store, and are still at large according to updates last received.
The owner of the dairy declined to comment.
This is the second robbery in Mangere in a week. On Tuesday, May 16, four men armed with machetes robbed cigarettes and cash from Kingsford Supermarket, grievously injuring a staff member. According to reports all the four offenders aged between 15 and 20 were arrested by Counties Manukau Police on Sunday, May 20, but are now out on bail.