Armed icecream robbers may have struck before

CCTV footage shows one of the five youths threatening the Ranui Takeaway owner with a gun. Photo / Supplied

The owners of a takeaway shop robbed by five armed teenagers of 60 icecreams say they are thinking about selling up.

Police are looking into whether two members of the group also robbed the Ranui Food Bar and Takeaway in West Auckland on New Year's Eve.

The youths burst into the store as Yunan Zheng, his wife Hoa and worker Houv Tang were cleaning up and getting ready to close, shortly before 9pm on Saturday.

CCTV footage shows Mr Zheng vacuuming the front of the store when a large woman in a grey, hooded sweatshirt enters, pointing a gun at him.

Four others - believed to be three women and a man - follow. All five wear hooded sweatshirts and cover their faces.

"I stayed behind the counter asking 'What do you want?'," Mr Zheng said.

"They were saying 'Give us all the money'."

Three women go to a freezer and load up gym bags with dozens of icecreams while the man and another person attempt to open the till.

The man pushes several buttons with his bare hands while the other person uses the back of a knife but the till does not open.

Meanwhile, Mr Zheng is seen dialling police on a cordless phone before locking himself in the toilet.

Four of the robbers run out of the store but the man goes to the freezer to grab more icecreams before running after them.

The shop was robbed of cash on New Year's Eve last year.

Mr Zheng said two of the women had "the same dark eyes" as those robbers, were the same build and had similar voices.

He ran outside after Saturday's robbery and saw the group running down Armada Drive.

Detective Sergeant Roger Small of the Henderson CIB said police were investigating whether the robberies were linked.

Mr Zheng said he had only restocked the freezers on Thursday, and believed more than 60 icecreams were taken, mostly Magnums.

The store was burgled three times within three weeks about four years ago with icecreams, chocolate and seafood taken.

Mr Zheng had put in a video camera afterwards but it hadn't deterred criminals.

"Me and my wife are thinking about leaving ... we are very scared," he said.

Icecream Bandits

* A medium-built man dressed in a red, checked, hooded sweat-shirt with a dark-coloured jacket over the top and a black or blue scarf covering his mouth. He was holding a red-handled hammer.

* A gun-wielding woman of big build dressed in a grey, hooded sweat-shirt, black shorts with a white stripe down the side, black socks pulled up and black shoes. She wore a blue peaked cap and a dark-coloured scarf over her face.

* A hammer-wielding woman of smaller build in a grey, hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and a pink scarf covering her face.

* A woman of big build, probably unarmed, in a white, hooded, zip-up sweatshirt, dark pants and grey sneakers.

* A knife-wielding person in a black hoodie and white shoes with red soles.