Dairy owner slams ramraid videos

A youth behind a ramraid at a Canterbury dairy looked about 10 years old and ‘‘could just reach the counter’’, the owner says.

Sangeet Mehta woke up to three loud bangs on Thursday as a car tore down the front entrance to his dairy, just metres from where his 15-monthold toddler slept.

The family-run shop on Springs Rd in Prebbleton was one of the latest victims of a series of ramraids around Greater Christchurch.

It was the third break-in in a month for the Mehta family, something they had ‘‘never, ever’’ experienced in the seven years Mehta had worked at the store.

He paid more than $12,000 to have his shopfront repaired three times and around $2500 worth of items were stolen during the ramraids.

Lollies, chips and drinks were taken in the latest raid, but the property where he and his family lived was ‘‘badly damaged’’.

Mehta managed to clean up and open the store the next day, and said he felt ‘‘blessed’’ for the moral and mental support of his community.

CCTV footage showed the offenders were in the shop for 33 seconds while Mehta watched from the backroom, worried they might be armed.

His first thought when he was woken up at 3am was, ‘‘Is this happening again?’’

He said one of the offenders appeared to be about 10 years old and looked ‘‘like a little boy’’.

‘‘They just reach the counter height,’’ he said.

One of his local customers, a parent of a Lincoln High School student, said adults in the community were ‘‘pissed off’’ with the string of offending.

‘‘Nothing is changing. One day something serious is going to happen,’’ said the parent, who asked not to be named.

Both the parent and Mehta had seen a video posted on social media showing the ramraiders crashing through the door.

Mehta said it was frustrating he could watch them ‘‘proudly’’ put the videos online.

One video showed a youth filming from the back seat of a police car, he said.

The parent thought social media played a part in glorifying the offending – something police in Auckland addressed last month after a spate of ramraids there.

Detective Inspector Karen Bright said many of the raids were posted on platforms like TikTok, which was ‘‘driving some of the offending’’.

Counties Manukau police had dealt with more than 60 young offenders – some as young as 11 – since October 2021, when ramraids started to spike, she said.

Canterbury Metro Area Commander Superintendent Lane Todd said police were working closely with social media providers to ‘‘quickly identify and remove any content broadcasting criminal activity, with a key focus on uploads associated with ramraids’’.

‘‘The community can be sure that police will continue to investigate each instance of a burglary or ramraid-style burglary,’’ he said.

Inquiries into the burglaries at the Prebbleton Dairy were ongoing.

At least six incidents in greater Christchurch have been reported in the past month.

The parent said he did not want ‘‘kids thinking they can do this’’.

‘‘If something doesn’t happen soon, parents will take it into their own hands.’’

Thieves are targetting humble grocery items like spuds, onions and tomato sauce as prices spiral upwards.

Retailers say thieves are becoming more audacious and more desperate. Tradies pay for their chips but pinch cans of sauce while other enterprising thieves steal higher value items like razor blades and deodorants to fence on the black market.

Shopkeepers, many at their wits end after a barrage of ram raids in addition to regular shoplifting, say there is no typical thief. They span age, race and gender boundaries with kids as young as 10 and people in their sixties lifting items from the shelves.

A man who has owned a Hamilton dairy for the past 22-years, but doesn’t want to be named for fear of retribution, has seen such a surge in shoplifting that he has resorted to draping his potatoes and onions in netting in a bid to deter lightfingered customers.

The shop owner said the theft wasn’t limited to children.

‘‘Everyone is doing it [stealing]. Tradies are taking tomato sauce – they buy hot chips and then pretend to be on the phone and put the sauce cans in their pocket. So we have moved it to sell behind the counter.’’

Police acknowledge shoplifting has been increasing for some time but for them the bigger concern is the additional violence and This comes as inflation is at its highest point in 30 years, reaching near 7% in the March quarter.

The massive increase in prices has been prompted by supply chain pressures caused by the pandemic and war in Ukraine, and monetary and fiscal decisions made to help the country avoid a financial crash during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Parkwood Supervalue director Manish Thakkar said he’s seen shoplifting and ram-raids rapidly increasing day-by-day.

‘‘Even if we catch them we aren’t allowed to touch them, but we say you are not doing the right thing, can you please chuck that back, and they argue with me and say no.’’

A number of shop staff, who didn’t want to be named, said they’ve seen an increase in stealing by children. They said it’s often a group of kids who have one or two distracting the staff member while the others take lollies, drinks, biscuits and chocolate. The children know staff have no power to stop them and often taunt them.

Foodstuffs NZ spokesperson Emma Wooster said retail crime had long been an issue, and the New Zealand grocery sector saw the largest year-on-year increase at 19% last year.

‘‘We have many measures in place to prevent and catch shoplifters – and we’re adding to them all the time.’’ She said shoplifting is a crime that we all ultimately bear the cost of.

Police national retail investigation support unit manager Matt Tierney said the aggressive and violent behaviour to retail staff is a worldwide trend.

‘‘The UK and Australia are seeing similar trends, and it may be a sign of the times around the pressure around Covid and social pressures, economic pressure.’’

Tierney said offenders are across the board, all ages and ethnicities, from as young as 10 up to mid 60s.

A 2017 Retail New Zealand survey shows only about 30% of retail crime was reported to police.

Tierney said there are definitely people making a choice to commit these crimes to support their lifestyle.

‘‘We’ve got a lady in Wellington who is on 95 active charges and most of those are shoplifting, and she’s not alone.’’

He also said offenders are brazen and often portray entitlement, acting violently when challenged.