Boy chased, scolded after robbery
A dairy owner scolded and chased a 14-year old boy after he robbed her at knifepoint then fled in a well-heeled Wellington suburb yesterday.
Ngaio Supermarket owner Kelly Patel said she told a teen wielding a carving knife to ‘‘get a job’’ as he took almost $100. The boy fled and she gave chase in her van.
Patel’s words were brave but she said she had been ‘‘very scared’’ after the June 10 death of West Auckland dairy owner Arun Kumar. Two boys aged 12 and 13 are facing trial over the death.
CCTV footage shows the boy entering the shop in Khandallah Road about 9.30am. What appears to be a tea-towel disguises his face and he is holding a carving knife.
Patel was serving neighbour Robyn Radomski. Both women said they had initially thought the boy’s appearance was a ‘‘joke.’’
However, he pointed the knife at Patel and swore at her, demanding money from the cash register and iTunes cards – which, she told him, the shop did not sell.
‘‘I was a bit worried about the knife because it reminded me of that killing in Auckland recently,’’ Patel said. ‘‘It was the morning, he had a knife and he looked about the same age, I thought he was maybe 12 or 13.’’
The security cameras in the shop – which Patel said had cost $20,000 to install after previous thefts – pointed straight at the counter and dairy entrance. Radomski said she had quietly backed out of the shop.
‘‘I was thinking what my strategy would be – I didn’t feel it would be a good move to try and do something while he had the knife,’’ she said.
She ran to a nearby medical centre and got the staff to call the police, and said the doctors told all patients to stay inside.
Meanwhile, Patel had given the boy cash and was feeling ‘‘annoyed’’.
‘‘I said to him, ‘Well, you should get a job’. I said, ‘I have to work for my money’,’’ she said. ‘‘I told him off, and he just goes ‘Yeah’.’’
After the boy left with the money and she hit a panic button to alert her husband upstairs while she jumped in her van.
‘‘I thought, ’I’m going to get that little . . . ’,’’ she said. However, she couldn’t find him. Police Youth Aid intercepted him near a commuter railway station.
Police said the suspect was being interviewed.