Jittery dairy owners want fog cannons to repel invaders

Hamilton’s desperate dairy owners are appealing to the Police Commissioner to urgently provide every one of their shops with fog cannons.

They are fearful after two were brutally assaulted as armed thieves stole cigarettes and cash this month, the latest in a spate of robberies.

Parkwood SuperValue owner Manish Thakkar said their newly set up group representing superettes, liquor stores and service stations in Hamilton and the outskirts had sent Police Commissioner Mike Bush a list of 85 retailers who wanted the fog cannons, asking him to make the Waikato a priority.

Shop owners were keen to try anything as they worried whether the next person who entered their stores would steal or hurt them.

A fog cannon releases up to 700 cubic metres of fog within 60 seconds, making it difficult for a burglar to see, and providing confusion.

“We don’t know how helpful it will be, but it’s definitely better than nothing,” Thakkar said.

The group has also asked Hamilton East Labour MP Jamie Strange to get the Government to supply stores with cigarette-vending machines and to increase community patrols.

Hamilton East National MP David Bennett has been working with the dairy owners and said he believed fog cannons were achievable in the short-term.