Takeaway shop reopens after Sunday ramraid

‘‘Why would anyone want to rip off a fish and chip shop?’’ Michael Vetters Shop owner

A Gore fish and chip shop reopened last night after it was ramraided in a late-night attack on Sunday.

Owner Michael Vetters was in bed when his friend called to tell him his East Gore Takeaways shop had been ramraided by a vehicle.

‘‘I got up and got down here pretty quickly,’’ he said.

‘‘It was a bit of a bloody mess, to be honest.’’

A car had been driven through the front doors, breaking the exterior wall and door, he said.

There were still tyre marks on the linoleum in the front part of the shop yesterday.

‘‘They had two goes – they went out and came back in again,’’ he said. ‘‘All they took was some drinks – some Powerade and E2 and some budget soft drinks, god knows why.

‘‘And they got off with the till, which only had shrapnel in it.’’

There were no cigarettes or vape products in the shop.

‘‘That’s what I don’t get – why would anyone want to rip off a fish and chip shop? It just goes to show that it can happen anywhere and no-one is safe.

‘‘People see this happening in Auckland all the time and they don’t expect it here.’’

A neighbour heard the commotion at the shop and called the police, who were there ‘‘pretty bloody quick’’, Vetters said.

‘‘I think it’s part of a TikTok challenge on social media, where you ramraid a shop and then show off about it and what you got. It’s not helped by it being in the media all the time – that just encourages it.

‘‘This is the perfect location here for it because you have State Highway 1 right there and other streets around that you can take off and get away pretty quickly.’’

Vetters had spent three days dealing with his insurer and getting the business back on its feet so that it could reopen.

‘‘The landlord has been awesome, and we’ve had builders here sorting the place out,’’ he said. ‘‘Hopefully it’ll be quite busy because I’ve lost a couple of days when I couldn’t open, and I have staff to pay.

‘‘I think it’s going to be quite busy. The amount of support we’ve had has been unbelievable – it’s just been amazing.’’

Police confirmed two people have been arrested in relation to the incident.

STUFF; SUPPLIED From top: East Gore Takeaways owner Michael Vetters outside his shop, which was ramraided on Sunday night; the shop front was badly damaged.