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A 9-year-old boy was threatened from behind with a knife and robbed of a Super 14 rugby collector's card at a Wellington school in a crime that has alarmed police.
Officers say the offender, believed to be 13 or 14 and with distinctive white stripes in his hair, walked up behind the victim, held the knife to his upper body and demanded the card.
The boy went home and told his parents, who contacted police.
Detective Sergeant Glenn Williams of the Wellington CIB said last night that a group of children were playing during their school holidays at Miramar Primary School when the robbery occurred about 5pm on Monday.
"The 13-year-old told him to give the card to him and produced the knife," he said.
"He sort of stepped behind him and put his arm around the younger boy with the knife and said, `Give me the card'."
Mr Williams said the 9-year-old was not injured during the robbery.
"He was shaken and obviously quite frightened ... [but] the minute the child handed over the card, the child put down the knife."
Police were keen to hear from anyone who saw the incident.
"It's still very serious," Mr Williams said. "The ages are concerning because if children are doing things like that at this stage it is just alarming how they're going to be in three, four or five years' time."
The offender was slim and had black short hair which was dyed white above each ear running lengthwise down both sides of his head.
He was wearing a black top and black silk basketball shorts with two white stripes down each leg and light blue stripes in the middle.
