Brave dairy owner takes broom to gun-wielding robber
There’s a hole in the ceiling above Bharati Gandhi’s head – caused by a bullet.
A gunman dressed in black with an orange hi-vis vest came in the door of her Devyish Superette in the Wellington suburb of Kilbirnie demanding ‘‘money, money, money’’ early on Friday afternoon.
He pulled out a black gun, about 30cm in length, and fired it into the ceiling, as Gandhi’s 17-year-old daughter Divya was sitting behind the counter with her. .
A thought flashed across Bharati’s mind: ‘‘If I don’t give him money, he’ll kill me. ‘‘I’m an old lady and I can’t run.’’ Instead, she grabbed a plastic broom and whacked him in the head with it.
He grabbed about $100 cash from the till and ran off across Kilbirnie Park, between the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre and the Poneke Rugby Club.
Gandhi was yesterday still after the armed robbery.
‘‘I couldn’t sleep. I’m tired. At one o’clock I wake up. At three, half past three, I wake up again.
‘‘Like he’s coming, he’s I’m a little bit scared.’’
A neighbour called police after seeing Gandhi crying outside her dairy following the robbery.
It was the first time in 22 years business that she’s been robbed.
There were plenty of people in the public pool over the road, but no customers in her dairy just across the road.
Many regulars had popped since in to see her, wishing her well and offering their sympathies.
‘‘My husband was not here. shaken coming. of
‘‘He’d say, ‘don’t worry. them take the money’.’’
She was left shaken but unhurt by the incident.
Police offered to take her hospital, but she did not want to go, despite normally having high blood pressure.
Her daughter, a college student, was still shaken.
Many of her friends heard what happened and had been in touch.
Detective Senior Sergeant Warwick McKee said: ‘‘The unlawful use of firearms, particularly of a threatening nature, is of serious concern to police.’’
The robber is described as European, in his mid-20s. He is about 1.7-metres tall and of slender build.
He was wearing black trousers and a long-sleeved black sweatshirt under a sleeveless orange glow jacket.
‘‘Police would like to hear from any person who may have witnessed this incident.’’ Just let