Crimes of convenience
Dairy robberies can last less than three terrifying minutes. But the consequences can haunt shopkeepers for years. Andrea Vance and Iain McGregor investigate.
Customers in a rush make Vijay Patel nervous. As they bustle through the automatic door of his Four Square in Awapuni, Palmerston North, the 62-year-old shopkeeper bristles. Behind the counter, memories flood back of a violent robbery in February.
Patel was stabbed, his wife Margaret knocked to the ground, and Karen, a staff member in her 50s, was beaten. The teenage robbers escaped with $2222.
‘‘I am now very conscious when customers run into the store in a hurry,’’ he says. ‘‘I also get anxious when customers with hoods over their head, or with masks because of Covid-19, come into the store.’’
Patel can’t forget the ‘‘horrendous attack’’.
It was a quiet Tuesday, just before 11.30am, when the men rushed in. Margaret had just walked into the back storeroom, Karen was serving a customer.
The first robber, wearing a white mask and cap, and carrying a black holdall, came behind the counter, straight for the cigarette display.
His accomplice vaulted the desk and beat the cowering assistant about the head, forcing her to the floor. He stamped on the till, smashing it open. A second till was booted to the ground.
‘‘They were carrying the weapon and under the influence of some sort of substance,’’ Patel says. ‘‘Basically tobacco and cash was what they’re looking for.’’
The Patels rushed to the aid of their employee. The men launched at Margaret, throwing the diminutive 65-year-old to the ground. ‘‘I was pushed back and landed on my head,’’ she says.
Her forehead was bruised, her elbow badly cut and her shoulder injured. ‘‘When I was on the floor and saw the knife next to me, I feared for my life.’’
She lay there and thought of her two sons and Vijay’s 90-year-old mother, who lives with the family. Now, she suffers sleepless nights and keeps a lamp lit at night.
‘‘[It] still haunts me. There are many days when I think about what happened and I break down.’’
Vijay was chased to the back of the shop, where the first robber slashed at his arm then calmly returned to raiding the cigarette shelves.
A customer tried to block the store exit with trolleys, but the pair escaped, punching Vijay in the face as they fled. ‘‘I received a deep cut to my left forearm, just below my elbow . . . a black eye from being punched and a scar on my right cheek.’’
He needed four stitches and his elbow still aches at night. In the scuffle, his back was hurt, which keeps him from sleeping.
‘‘It has also affected my ability to lift heavy items at work. The attack has affected my lifestyle. I used to go for a walk three to four nights a week but since the robbery I have only been once and I was constantly looking over my shoulder, because I was worried that someone was following me, ready to attack me.’’
He talks of emotional harm. ‘‘It’s created doubt in my mind about the safety and security of my staff and customers . . . I’m constantly worried.’’
The Patels were back at work the next day, in the store they have run for 31 years.
‘‘We had a lot of cards. A lot of food came that day, and [customers were] really appreciative . . . that heals the wounds a little bit.
‘‘What we thrive on is the wonderful community . . . I can’t let my loyal customers down and that’s what makes you get up and try again.’’
Vijay is glad they did. ‘‘We have been important throughout the Covid, being an essential store . . . they were difficult times, as well. It’s quite an honour to serve the local community with the goods they need.’’ N ew Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Patel is Margaret’s brother, and was on the scene within minutes of the robbery.
A string of robberies in the city this year has dairy owners on edge, he says. He established a WhatsApp group for shopkeepers to alert each other of suspicious behaviour, including prowlers and counterfeit cash.
‘‘The effect is quite horrendous. People get shaken up, because . . . the smaller dairies are run by husband and
wife and their children. There is always this fear by the families running small corner dairies.’’
Paul Patel says dairy owners must also deal with petty crime, like graffiti, and racism regularly.
Police figures show there were only eight reported incidents of racial abuse in a retail location between 2017 and July 2020. One person received a formal warning.
‘‘It’s not a daily occurrence,’’ he says. ‘‘A customer may make racist comments, or may not appreciate a language problem that the dairy owner may have. Their English may not be as clear as that person’s, and he or she might take offence to it.
‘‘Not many of them like to talk about it, because [they] feel it may retaliate.’’
Inspector Ross Grantham, police crime prevention manager in Manawatu¯ , is the son of general store owners.
‘‘I have an affinity for dairies, I’ve experienced how important the local dairy is to everyone and how often we take them for granted.
‘‘It’s a hub of the community . . . it’s a place for us to walk to and treat the kids to an icecream. The shopkeeper knows and welcomes the locals, regular customers with a smile and a chat.’’
The robberies are often unplanned, but leave workers feeling vulnerable. ‘‘It’s indicative of people who are desperate. We all know dairies no longer hold large amounts of cash.
‘‘And most of the dairies don’t have large caches of cigarettes now simply because they are trying to minimise their risk of being robbed.’’
Police encourage the use of fog cannon, panic alarms, safe rooms, CCTV, removing advertising material from windows and compliance with any demands.
‘‘Every robbery is a violent crime . . . The fear of being harmed surely must be horrific. And many are owner-operators. So the shopkeeper who was confronted yesterday, has to attend to the shop today. Open the door [and] stand behind the counter like they did the day before. That must be terrifying.’’
Dairies became a battleground in the suburbs as the previous National-led government drove a policy to ensure New Zealand was ‘‘smokefree’’ within a decade.
Compounding tax hikes on tobacco pushed up its value on the black market. A pack of cigarettes can now cost more than $40.
Between 2015 and 2017 there was a significant increase in the number of commercial aggravated robberies. A police study analysed CCTV from nearly 300 incidents throughout the country between October 2017 and March 2018.
Most were in Auckland and Waikato – and the thieves were in and out in less than three minutes.
Other businesses – like bars and petrol stations – were also targeted but dairies and superettes bore the brunt of the crime. Tobacco was the most targeted item.
In 87 per cent of cases, dairy owners were threatened with a weapon, and someone was hurt in almost a third of incidents.
In November 2017, Nanu Patel, 62, his wife Hasumati, 53, and daughter Sarika, 30, were beaten in a vicious assault by two men in their Papakura Superette.
Patel suffered blows to the head, face and bruised ribs, Hasumati suffered eye and Sarika endured surgery for a broken jaw.
In the same week Ajit Farrar, 58, lost an eye after being attacked by four men at his Hamilton dairy.
Four months later, in the same city, another owner was left for dead in a pool of blood after robbers attacked him with a hammer.
The new Labour government responded with a $1.8m crime prevention initiative to subsidise the cost of fog cannon, which acts as a deterrent by blocking an assailant’s vision so employees can retreat to a safe place. Almost 600 shops have taken up the offer.
The Government claimed in March that commercial aggravated robberies are at their lowest level in five years.
It’s difficult to assess this claim based on the data provided by police. Stuff asked for the number of robberies per year since 2016.
Police would provide figures only for the number of victims – which does show a drop – but not the actual number of crimes.