Robbers take ciggies
Six youths robbed a Hamilton dairy with a knife taking cigarettes, two oranges and two fizzy drinks worth $1.50 each.
About 1pm on a Monday afternoon, five boys ran inside the Mardon Road Foodmart, while a girl waited outside.
One of the offenders was as young as 11-years-old, Senior Sergeant Dean Anderson said.
Security footage showed one boy brandished a large knife, about 30cm long, at the two shop assistants.
He was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, with the hood drawn tightly over his face, leaving only a small gap to see through.
The boys jumped over the counter, stole a few 50 gram bags of tobacco and packets of cigarettes.
They ignored the till, and then jumped back over the counter, running out the door.
One grabbed two pieces of citrus fruit on his way out. The boy with the knife was the last to leave the store, and grabbed two of the cheapest fizzy drinks in the dairy as he departed.
The two shop assistants ran to the back of the store for safety and were uninjured.
Mardon Road Foodmart manager Ronak Patel was perplexed by the boys’ decision to take the two pieces of fruit and the drinks.
Although Patel was unsure of the amount of cigarettes and tobacco stolen, 50 gram bags of tobacco retailed at $77 and he believed it was easily on-sold.
Most of the youths involved in the robbery were local children who were regular customers to the store, he said.
Three of the offenders, aged 11, 13 and 16, had already been arrested and three more were to be spoken too.