‘He was ready to use the trigger’
Bashed, robbed at gunpoint as election looms
Superette owner Manish Thakkar saw the offender’s finger on the trigger as he was held at gunpoint in his Hamilton store.
The violent robbery of cigarettes and cash at Supervalue Parkwood comes as the debate around tobacco in dairies and retail crime heats up in election year.
Thakkar said two offenders jumped the counter around 7pm and started punching him.
‘‘They then started taking cigarettes and cash. Then the third one pointed a gun at me and asked me to open the lockers. They wanted to take all the money. As soon as he turned around, I ran away.’’
There were four or five customers in the shop at the time.
‘‘Fortunately I had just handed over some lollies to a young kid, and they had just moved out of the shop when the men came in, otherwise they could have been injured.’’
When the gun was pointed at him, he wanted to do something, but couldn’t.
‘‘Especially because they bashed me – that is the worst thing, how can anyone bash me? If you want to take money you can.
‘‘But he was ready to use the trigger.’’
Thakkar described the offenders as aged between 25 to 30-years-old. Two were wearing masks and the gunman was wearing a motorbike helmet.
A getaway car, later found abandoned, was waiting outside.
Thakkar has plenty of safety precautions and still feels helpless.
‘‘The community is supporting us. But [offending] has become more aggressive.’’
Visibly shaken, Thakkar was also left battered and bruised.
It comes days after he confronted young burglars at his store at around 5am on Sunday. As he approached they took swings at him with a golf club.
Meanwhile, another dairy on River Rd, near Donny Ave, was also robbed on Thursday. The target? Tobacco.
Cigarettes in stores and retail crime is already heating up as a political issue as the 2023 election looms.
While national data shows criminal proceedings for youth crime have been falling since at least 2014, especially among 15 to 19-year-old offenders, 2022 saw a reversion, with the number now appearing to trend up – though still nowhere near the earlier numbers.
Vehicle-based crime, such as car thefts, committed by those aged between 10 and 14, has increased steeply since 2021, with average monthly numbers since January 2021 (112 proceedings) about twice what they were in the years prior.
Burglary and breaking and entering numbers are roughly what they were in the period immediately before the pandemic, when they dipped slightly.
A July Official Information Act release by police showed the number of recorded ramraids by youth had increased from six in January 2020, to 21 in January 2022.
Hours before Manish Thakkar was robbed, returning Police Minister Stuart Nash told reporters in Porirua that he wants to speed up the planned reduction in the number of dairies that can sell cigarettes.
Last year, an amendment bill was passed into law limiting the
number of approved retailers to 600. There are now about 6000 retailers across the country.
Nash said he would discuss how the reduction in store numbers could be brought forward, NZME reported.
‘‘I want these businesses to feel safe so I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver on but what I am going to do is talk to the Minister of Health, Dr Ayesha Verrall, and see if we can somehow speed up the removal of tobacco from these dairies.
‘‘If we can get tobacco out of these dairies, I think we can solve the problem.’’
ACT’s police spokesperson Chris Baillie, however, described Nash’s comments as blaming victims for ramraids and robberies on the dairy owners who carry a legal product.
‘‘The law is there to protect people so they can do business. Stuart Nash’s approach appears to be about stopping them from doing business because the Government can’t stop crime.’’
Waikato business owner Ash Parmar said he’s heard of a number of places which had been robbed through January.
‘‘People are afraid of speaking up. They don’t want the offenders to come back, and also they may be looking to sell their business and don’t want it known out there.’’
He believes everyone is contemplating selling but can’t because no-one wants to buy into those businesses.
The crime is taking a toll on people’s mental health, said Parmar, and now he’s hearing of more aggravated robberies due to the ramraid preventions such as bollards and steel doors.
A police spokesperson said they are continuing to see criminal offending in communities across New Zealand.
‘‘Any robbery or burglary is concerning, even more so when it involves threats, violence and damage to property.’’
They said police work hard to identify and arrest offenders to hold them accountable for their actions.
‘‘There have been a number of arrests in relation to aggravated robberies and burglaries in the Waikato District.’’
Police said there have been 96 arrests in relation to burglaries and 26 arrests in relation to robberies in Waikato between December 1 and January 26.