Spate of ramraids in region

A gang of heavily disguised cigarette thieves has been stealing cars and smashing them into businesses in rural Canterbury.

Police in the region are investigating eight burglaries at dairies and service stations since February 10, which they believe are linked. The most recent was at the Mount Somers General Store on Tuesday night.

Senior Sergeant Pete Stills said in most cases a car and utility vehicle would smash into a business and four people would run inside. They wore dark hoodies and masked their faces, which made them difficult to identify.

The group usually stole cigarettes before fleeing. Several stolen cars, which police believed were used in the burglaries, had been found abandoned. A ute, stolen on February 9, was captured on CCTV at several of the scenes.

The Leeston Dairy, Leeston Challenge, BP to Go on Mt Cook Rd in Fairlie, the Hororata Garage, and the Glentunnel Store are among the targeted businesses. A cigarette dispenser was found destroyed on the side of the road after the ramraid in Hororata.

Sara Holgate, daughter of the Mt Somers General Store’s owner, said thieves smashed through a window at the store on Tuesday night and climbed inside. She lived next to the shop and heard the alarm from her bedroom. She and her husband pulled on jerseys and hurried to the shop. They heard a car speeding away within two minutes, she said.

Drawers had been rifled through and the cigarette cabinet tampered with, but nothing was stolen, Holgate said. ‘‘It’s unsettling and not very cool. We were really lucky they [were] gone before we turned up.