‘Very scary and frightening’
Mandeep Singh knows first-hand the sheer terror of being held at knife-point while at work, and says he moved south in search of a safer place to do business.
In fact, it was two robberies – one at knife point, and another where he was attacked defending his Hamilton store – that prompted Singh, who owns Timaru’s The Bottle-O Seaview, to move out of the city.
‘‘It is very scary,’’ he said. ‘‘Something needs to be done.’’
The death of dairy worker Janak Patel, who was fatally stabbed in Auckland, prompted a national protest yesterday with dairy owners, including several in Timaru, closing their shops for several hours.
The incident has brought back memories for Singh, who says rules should be tightened to prevent another death.
Singh, who also owns a liquor store in Pleasant Point, was working in the Bottle-O Hillcrest, in Hamilton, in 2017, when his life changed.
He had owned the store for several months when four men stormed into the business on September 28, about 6.50pm, trying to grab bottles of liquor.
‘‘They also tried to rob cigarettes and I fought back,’’ Singh said. ‘‘They could not get anything, so they smashed me over the head with a bottle.’’
Singh said he also required stitches in his finger following the incident.
‘‘The guys were caught as they also robbed a gas station nearby.’’
Only just getting over the incident, Singh was again at work behind the counter of the liquor
store when three men walked in with a machete, demanding cigarettes and cash.
Having been the victim of a robbery just months earlier, Singh said that this time around he let them take what they could.
‘‘The knife was massive. I was not defending myself that time.’’
There was also a customer in store too, and he did not want them to be harmed in the incident. Two robberies in two months had been ‘‘very frightening’’, he said.
‘‘My parents told me to move somewhere else.’’
He listened and moved to Christchurch, and then to Timaru in 2019.
‘‘It was really, really bad. It was just really scary.’’
Singh felt laws should be tightened.
‘‘Action needs to be taken. ‘‘This shouldn’t be happening.’’