Crown Superette on Melrose Road, Mt Roskill was robbed for the second time in the last six months on Monday, September 18.
At around 8:30 p.m., four men armed with machetes, gun and a saw entered the dairy store and demanded cash and tobacco.
The offenders quickly took cash from the til and cigarettes from the rack and escaped.
The offenders threatened to hit the attendant, but no one was injured. The number of people at the store at the time of robbery is yet to be confirmed.
The police came to the scene of the crime just after the incident and did an initial investigation.
The Indian Weekender was informed of the incident at 10:15 p.m. and the IWK team spoke to the owner and their family members of the aggrieved at the scene.
“The robbers first tried to enter through the back door, when they could not, they hid in the lane adjacent to the store for five minutes and then suddenly ambushed the store,” a member of the community at the Crown Superette told The Indian Weekender.
Crown Superette is the same store where an armed robbery by eight young offenders on Sunday, March 5 left owners Jitesh and Preeti Arora grievously hurt.
Protests outside Crown Superette in March 2017 (IWK file picture)
The March 2017 attack at Crown Superette made the owner of the dairy store Jitesh Arora undergo multiple surgeries on his head and arms and left him bedridden for months. The couple eventually went bankrupt trying to cope up with mounting bills and had to sell off their business.
Jitesh Arora, the previous owner of Crown Superette (IWK file picture)
The attack at Crown Superette then also resulted in multiple protests against the rising number of armed robberies in the country.
“I bought this dairy from Jitesh five months ago, and I am aware of his plight," the current owner of Crown Superette, Billa, told The Indian Weekender.
The forensics team will visit the store on Tuesday morning, September 19 to collect more evidence for further investigation.
“This is bad; such incidences put a huge burden on the small businesses,” present at the scene Shail Kaushal, member of the Puketapapa local board told The Indian Weekender.
More updates will be posted on The Indian Weekender soon.
Follow our previous coverage here:
We are too scared to open our business again: Crown Superette robbery victim
Aggravated robbery victim demands "interim relief" from insurance to save their dairy business