I’m scared, says dairy worker after bashing from robbers

‘Nifty nana’ getaways

A Hamilton dairy worker who was bashed on the head with a crowbar, pushed to the floor and then dragged several metres says he is nervous and scared to be back at work.

The man, who did not want to be named, was back serving customers yesterday when the store reopened at 1pm after police finished their examinations, and he admitted he was scared.

But this time at least two other staff members were working beside him.

“I’m very nervous. I’m scared talking. I’m scared,” he told the Herald.

He has a bump and a gash on the left side of his head where the crowbar whacked him and a cricket bat for protection is lying within easy reach behind the counter.

The dairy worker had been standing behind the Lotto counter at Tuhikaramea Superette in Dinsdale on Saturday night when two men wearing dark hoodies and masks barged into the shop.

A customer had just left so the worker was alone. “It was around 6.40pm and two people came very fast . . . [with] very sharp weapons.”

The intruders ordered him to put his hands in the air before jumping over the counter and bashing him.

The pair stole most of the store’s cigarettes and emptied the cash register before escaping in a car which had been parked waiting outside.

At the same time three others in the group had entered Kiwi Liquor four doors down and robbed it.

A man working there yesterday afternoon said the worker on duty during the robbery had not been hurt.

Both robberies took about 10 minutes, by which time customers had gathered outside the shops and called 111 as the group fled.

A stolen blue Mazda Demio parked outside Kiwi Liquor and the stolen black Mazda Familia was parked outside the dairy. But the dairy worker said CCTV footage clearly showed there was at least a third car, a light silver vehicle. Mazda Demio owners are being warned to keep their “pint-sized pride and joy” out of sight and locked and alarmed after they have become a magnet for thieves.

A stolen blue Mazda Demio 2006 (registration DZC148) and a stolen black Mazda Familia 2002 (ECR885) were used as getaway cars in a crime spree on Saturday afternoon involving masked robbers who broke into a motorcycle shop in Frankton before holding up a liquor store and dairy in Dinsdale.

Waikato police said the “nifty nana” Mazda Demios are sought after by thieves with dozens being stolen in the past two months.

“Bad guys think they are great. Because apparently we don’t look at nana cars while we are driving around. Incorrect, but alas, they are stealing them anyway,” the police posted on their Facebook page.