Stores hit, vehicles stolen
Nelson’s Milton St dairy is the latest convenience store to be targeted for cigarettes after a car smashed into its glass doors during an early morning ram-raid.
Milton St Store, Post and Lotto owner Carolyn Kane said she was woken to news of the ‘‘ram-raid’’ by her security company at 1.45am on Sunday.
Police were immediately notified and arrived within five minutes.
Kane said the thieves attempted to break into the shop’s tobacco cabinet but the system was ‘‘impregnable, so they got away with nothing’’. ’’They’re idiots.’’
‘‘Significant damage’’ of the store’s front double doors, ceiling, counters and stands forced Kane to call in emergency help to have the shop secured by Richmond Glass at 3am that day.
Kane said she was grateful nothing was taken and no-one was injured.
‘‘It’s certainly not a very nice feeling,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s one of those things. It has been happening a lot.
‘‘We had been prepared, I guess as much as you could be if something like this was going to happen, and all of the systems we had in place worked perfectly.’’
Kane will be at the support group police and Nelson City Council plans to host on Friday at 10am at Civic House. She hoped other affected store owners would attend.
City councillors and police officers are meeting with Nelson dairy owners on Friday to reassure them they are not alone following a spate of dairy robberies across the region. Police have arrested and charged three people for the aggravated robbery of the Victory Discounter Dairy, which happened shortly before 9pm on July 16.
Police have also made several arrests in other recent dairy robberies in Nelson, including the Hira Store on July 2.
Police are continuing to investigate an attempted burglary of the Hope Store and Takeaways at 11.30pm on Saturday.
That same evening, the Ocean Lodge motel on Muritai St in Tahunanui was also targeted.
Earlier on Saturday night, a white Toyota van was stolen from Trafalgar St between 6pm and 9pm.
The van was filled with building tools that were later dumped on the road near Allan St in Nelson.
The vehicle’s owner, Arjan Van’t Slot, said his work car was taken from his driveway while he was at the cinema.
Van’t Slot phoned police as soon as he returned home. He was told about 6.45am on Sunday that the car was found, burnt out, in Hope.
He said he was also phoned by residents of Allan St who said they had found his tools on the road. There was a PlaceMakers docket among the wreckage of tools that helped track him down.
Almost all the tools were there, Van’t Slot said.
‘‘There were probably $4000 to $5000 worth of tools and they just pushed it out of the van on the road. [I’m] pretty gutted. I’m so lucky I got the tools back.’’
Van’t Slot said police helped him clean up the tools off the road, which included boxes of nails, screws, power tools, electrical cords and a portable saw bench.
He said his car was insured and he was able to continue work while police continued their investigations.
A nearby resident on Allan St said they heard some noise about midnight on Saturday but did not connect it to any ‘‘wrong-doing’’.
Police also had reports of a second vehicle stolen over the weekend, which has not been found.
The car is a green Hyundai Getz with the registration number DJN303.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Nelson police on 03 546 3840 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via the online reporting page.