‘Tragedy waiting to happen’
Rise in ram raids concern for retailers
Fifteen to 20 ram raids are being reported each week across the country by members of the Dairy and Business Owners Group. The apparent surge in violent shop crime has seen retailers resorting to private security and self-defence lessons, and they fear authorities won’t crack down until someone is killed.
Tuesday night saw at least three more stores targeted in Auckland — in Titirangi and Mairangi Bay, after three cars hurtled into Ormiston Town Centre the night before, and a group of men used a weapon to smash their way inside Westcity Mall.
Dairy and Business Owners Group chair Sunny Kaushal felt there was a sense of “lawlessness” gripping the country. He said the 15 to 20 ram raids each week was a marked increase on previous years.
“Two years ago the ram raids were lesser in numbers. The modus operandi during that time was assaults and aggravated robberies. This is the new-found modus operandi of these offenders,” he said.
“Young offenders are involved in these crimes and they’re taking it as fun.”
Kaushal said dairy owners shouldn’t have to fork out for private security or self-defence lessons, as some are doing.
“We need our crimes to be taken seriously. Our blood is on the hands of politicians. My very real concern is that sooner or later somebody will be killed,” he said.
Those words were echoed in
These people have got to be brought to justice. A slap on the back of the wrist with a wet bus ticket is not the answer. Malcolm Campbell, Kawerau business owner and mayor
Kawerau by Malcolm Campbell, whose butchery was rammed and then set on fire in October.
He is also the district’s mayor. “The sad part about it? Somebody’s gonna get hurt,” he said.
Campbell said the district had seen a 12-month spate of ram raids, and he was frustrated with seemingly lax laws. “These people have got to be brought to justice. A slap on the back of the wrist with a wet bus ticket is not the answer. It’s no good telling us that jail is not the answer. Well, what is the answer then?” he said.
“Some of these politicians need to have it happen to them and they might change their ways.”
To catch the offenders, the owner of the Wellington Street Superette in Freeman’s Bay, Seyeda Dadabhai, said she would like the police to look at where the stolen goods are going.
She said her 33-year streak without a ram raid ended in February, when a car reversed into the store, waking her up on the building’s second floor.
Police have not been able to provide their own data on the number of ram raids.
Detective Inspector Karen Bright said that police were aware in the spike of ram raids, but said they were not a new issue.
“It’s not an issue just in Auckland . . . it’s all across New Zealand.”
Police were concerned and Bright said the offenders were often very young — some as young as 11.
There was a “huge risk” that someone could be killed in a ram raid, Bright said.
“One of our worries is that there is a tragedy waiting to happen. We are taken this matter seriously and we are investigating all offences.”
Social media was a motivator of some offending, she said.