Fuel station’s CCTV captures robbery

AUCKLAND: A frenzied aggravated robbery at an Auckland petrol station yesterday was captured on video footage.

Three people, who appeared to be youths, brandished a hammer as they jumped over the front counter of the GAS Fuel 24/7 shop in Mt Wellington about 11.40am.

Footage shows the trio taking several trays of cigarettes and rolling tobacco before a fog cannon blew smoke from directly above the counter, hampering any further theft.

Owner Balraj Kingra told The

he had had enough of such crime after his petrol station was targeted twice last year.

‘‘It’s such a gutwrenching thing, man.

‘‘It makes you not want to work in these stores any more.

‘‘I don’t know when it’s going to stop. I want to show that this is a major problem in our society.’’

One witness said she was walking past the petrol station with her coworker when they saw the trio run from inside.

She said her coworker tried to confront the youths but held back when he realised they were armed.

‘‘It was quite surreal.

‘‘You always hear about these things but watching it was completely different,’’ she said.

‘‘I was shaking — I didn’t know how to react. Even though it was over in 10 seconds it was awful.’’

Two customers were inside the shop when the trio bounded in, Mr Kingra said, and after the fog cannon went off the youths aimlessly smashed other parts of the station.

‘‘These kids have no fear. No fear of the law or any consequences,’’ he said.

‘‘I don’t understand what’s motivating them to do something like this in broad daylight.

‘‘The damage they do — you can’t [describe that] with any words.

‘‘It’s so disappointing.

‘‘I want people to see how bad it is out there for retailers, even with all the security measures. We’ve had enough [of it].’’

His petrol station had bollards, roller doors, and the fog cannon seen in the security footage, but that was not stopping people from causing damage, Mr Kingra said.

‘‘It’s not good for our society, man. Even having all these measures in place, these kids are just on the loose.

‘‘They came here with a baseball bat, a hammer, they smashed through the door.

‘‘You just can’t do any more [to help your business].’’

Police said they responded to reports of a robbery at the petrol station where a group of offenders entered the business with weapons, spoke threateningly to staff, took items and left.

Officers were inquiries, police said.

But Mr Kingra said the police ‘‘had not done anything’’ regarding the previous robberies of his business.

‘‘They say it’s too complicated, there’s not enough evidence — making even though I have all the footage — and another time they caught the boys in the park five minutes [after a robbery] but I never knew what happened to them in the end,’’ he said.

Returning Police Minister Stuart Nash wanted to quicken the scheduled reduction of dairies that can sell cigarettes and was engaging fellow ministers with the aim of preventing ram raids.

Last year, former Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall — now the Health Minister — successfully introduced the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill into law, which prohibited the sale of smoked tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009.

It also included a restriction on the number of businesses that could sell smoked tobacco products — no more than 600 nationally.

‘‘I want these businesses to feel safe so I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver on, but what I am going to do is talk to the Minister of Health, Dr Ayesha Verrall, and see if we can somehow speed up the removal of tobacco from these dairies,’’ Mr Nash said.

‘‘If we can get the tobacco out of these dairies, I think that may solve the problem.’’

But Mr Kingra said ‘‘tougher laws need to be in place. I don’t think anybody will disagree — ‘Nashy’ doesn’t know’’. — The