Auckland dairy owner 'shaken up' by daylight robbery, wants Government action

The Levonia Store is the latest to have been hit in a spate of robberies targeting dairies. Photo / Alex Burton

An Auckland dairy owner has been left shaken up after his dairy was robbed by four men on Sunday morning.

Police were called to a Levonia St premises in Morningside, Auckland, about 9am after a report of a robbery.

The Levonia Store owners Paras and Shital Ranchhod say three men rushed behind the counter of their shop and stole cigarettes, while one man, wearing a batman mask and wielding a hammer, stood holding Paras in the doorway.

Paras said he was walking out of the store to empty rubbish when a car pulled up directly across the road and four men got out, and came towards him.

"Three ran into the store and pushed me out of the way. One guy with a batman mask on had a hammer and made me stand in the door, watching me.

He believes the men were aged between 20 and 25.

"It's time for the government to bloody do something, I think."

"I don't know what it is, but something has to be done. We're scared. We're shaken up. We were robbed a month ago and those thieves stole fewer cigarettes than this time, I don't think they were the same guys."

Store owner Paras Ranchhod was threatened with a hammer during a robbery. Photo / Alex Burton

A police spokesperson said inquiries are ongoing and no one was injured.

The Levonia Store is the latest to have been hit in a spate of robberies targeting dairies.

Last Thursday, eight youths were arrested after a dairy on Great North Rd in Glendene was burgled around 3.50am that same morning.

The youths allegedly fled in two vehicles, but they were later arrested in the Clendon area after they were tracked by officers.

Earlier on Thursday morning at 2.20am a dairy on Mount Smart Rd in Onehunga was ram-raided by a stolen vehicle.

The offenders then fled the scene in another vehicle, police said.

Another burglary of a commercial property on Ashby Ave in St Heliers at 2am Thursday is also the subject of an ongoing investigation.