Businesses hit in overnight burglaries
The owners of two businesses are cleaning up their stores after being raided overnight.
Riverdale Store on College St and Liquorland Albert St in Palmerston North were the target of two smash-andgrabs after midnight yesterday.
Riverdale Store owner Mei-ling Chiang was turning shocked patrons away at 7am as they arrived for their morning snacks beforework.
She had rushed to her store just after 1.30am after the security company alerted her to the breach.
A security camera at the Challenge petrol station next door showed Chiang how the two offenders smashed into the front door with their car.
‘‘They were very quick. It’s very clear the car just come up and crashed into the doors,’’ Chiang said.
‘‘They just tried to grab the cigarettes, but they couldn’t. They took two tills which had nothing in them.’’
Chiang said she and her husband had never had any problems in the 11 years they owned the store.
‘‘We’ve been quite careful. Wewere feeling quite safe before, we’ve never had a robbery or a burglary before.’’
Chiang was waiting for police to begin fingerprinting the store, but was confident the offenders would be caught.
‘‘They are the same people that hit the Liquorland because the police showed us [the] camera over there, they were dressed in the same clothes.’’
Police were alerted to a second burglary at Liquorland Albert St at 1.50am after the front door was smashed in.
A scene guard was stationed at the store overnight with police tape cordoning off the shopfront.
Police were making inquiries into the burglaries, a police media spokesman said.
Awapuni local Louisa Spooner, 66, was shocked when she discovered the ram-raid on Riverdale Store as she took her morning walk.
Spooner said she didn’t feel safe walking around the area.
‘‘I come past here every day, this is disgusting, it’s getting terrible, even us oldies can’t walk the street without fear of being discriminated against.’’
She felt sorry for Chiang and the other businesses that had been hit by burglaries and robberies.
‘‘They’re here for a living, they’ve got to get their wages, they’ve got to feed themselves.
‘‘They’ve got to live off that money, these little buggers have got to stop it.’’