Heroes foil axe-wielding shop robbers
Offenders escape scene empty-handed
The owner of an Auckland watch shop that was targeted in an attempted daylight smash-and-grab says the men who fought off the thieves are heroes.
A group of men, one armed with an axe, started “attacking” the window of About Time in Remuera about 4.20pm on Monday.
The owner of the store, Rebecca Alexander, said she was at home at the time on the phone to her husband who was at the store.
“I heard our office manager screaming, then I heard the breaking glass and I thought, ‘ oh dear, we’ve been done again’,” she said.
Incredible footage of other store owners and locals who took on the offenders in an effort to thwart their escape has emerged.
“We had a couple of heroes, the man from the kebab shop happened to be cutting up carrots with quite a substantial machete-type knife — he rushed out and started attacking them or the car,” Alexander said.
Pro Consult co-owner Stuart Hobbs also ran down and picked up a sign to defend himself. He can be seen in the footage bailing the group up behind some stairs before following them to their car where he rammed them from the passenger side.
“That was the only thing I could defend myself with because these three hoods were armed with hammers and axes, so I charged them and I think they got the fright of their life actually and they started to run and I just kept running after them.
“I think that if people can get together and not put up with this sort of thing, we’re going to be a better society for it,” Hobbs said.
Despite their best efforts, the offenders got away in a silver Toyota Aqua.
As a spate of burglaries plague the city, Alexander said they’ve had to be “super” vigilant.
“We’ve got a lock in-lock out system so you have to buzz to get in . . . New Zealand used to be a safe wonderful country that we all wanted to come back and live in and now it’s yeah, scary.”
This was the second time in a month that the store has been targeted and Alexander suspects the same offenders.
The first time, a group used rocks, hammers and crowbars to smash their way in. Fortunately, in both incidents, the offenders have not got their hands on any stock.
This incident comes after Auckland Detective Inspector Scott Beard revealed at least 12 smash-and-grabs had occurred across Tāmaki Makaurau in the six-week period from the end of May to mid-July.
He noted Michael Hill had been targeted in roughly half of those incidents as ram-raiding youths who have plagued Auckland businesses are now favouring jewellery stores.
Last week staff and shoppers at Westgate’s NorthWest Shopping Centre were left in shock as several people — who were armed with a variety of weapons, but not firearms — entered the Michael Hill store and smashed cabinets and took items.
Earlier that week a Michael Hill jewellery store in the Botany Town Centre was also targeted by a group of thieves armed with tools and seen smashing glass cabinets.
Multiple other Michael Hill stores across Auckland have been targeted over the past month, including in New Lynn, Newmarket and Takapuna.
Beard also revealed police believed the offenders carrying out these crimes were many of the same people behind a significant spike in ram raids earlier this year.
“It would appear that we’re talking about the same group of offenders and they’ve just moved into the aggravated burglaries where they’re walking into a, for instance, Michael Hill Jewellers, smashing the glass cabinets, grabbing the jewellery and taking off,” he said.
“I think a lot of this is around notoriety, bravado amongst their friends and their group, but also there’s that opportunity to sell or get money from jewellery or wear it themselves.”
Offenders were typically between 12 and 20 years, often equipped with hammers, crowbars or metal bars.