Shop owner says he’s so scared he can’t sleep
Nick Guo says people like him are so scared of crime they cannot sleep at night.
Guo, who owns Frankleigh Park Dairy in New Plymouth, was speaking after the death of shop worker Janak Patel, who was fatally stabbed last week after a robbery.
The 34-year-old Hamilton man was attacked in the street near the Auckland superette about 8pm and later died. He had been helping out at the dairy while the owners were away.
A man aged 34 has been charged with murder and aggravated robbery, while a 42-year-old man has been charged with robbery. Another man has also been charged in relation to the robbery.
Yesterday, dairies across Taranaki and New Zealand closed between 12.30-2.30pm to highlight their worries over rising crime.
Guo said the owners wanted to show support for Patel.
‘‘We worry quite a bit because this year lots of dairies in Taranaki have been robbed. We were robbed. It is horrible.’’
Guo said one man came into the Frankleigh Park dairy earlier in the year, with a ‘‘really big knife’’.
But he said there were cases where offenders are aged under 18, so they’re ‘‘not put in jail. They just have a family group conference and are released’’.
‘‘When we heard about this dairy worker in Auckland getting killed I feel very angry. ‘‘We want to stand up to support them.’’
Guo has written to New Plymouth Labour MP Glen Bennett asking him to introduce dairy owners who emigrated from China to the police, so they can have a meeting.
‘‘We’re first generation of migrants and English is not our first language.
‘‘And on other side we don’t have strong support in local community so when incidents happen we don’t get any support.
‘‘We’d like community leader to support us.’’
They would like to have one person, a co-ordinator, who can liaise with the dairy owners, Guo said.
‘‘So if anything happens we can talk to him.’’
Not all dairy owners understand how the system works. And they would also like to suggest the police make patrols past the dairies.
‘‘We don’t need it every day, just from time to time, so the criminals are aware.
‘‘And we’d like to contact local community organisations, like neighbourhood watch, and school principals, because some kids come here to shoplift.’’
They have also written to the New Plymouth District Council asking for bollards to be put on the footpath to stop ramraids, but the council said no, he said.
‘‘We need them to support us.’’ Guo has been in the dairy business for nearly 20 years, buying his first in Blagdon, New Plymouth, in 2004.
Back then he never had any robberies, he said.
He bought the Frankleigh Park Dairy in 2016, and his wife owns the Highlands Local Dairy.
‘‘This year the two shops have been robbed, and some of my friends.
‘‘It’s getting worse, that’s why we need to organise.’’