Darts club cleaner tied up, bashed, in post-housie robbery

Police outside the Hastings Darts Club after the armed robbery. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

A cleaner at a Hastings sports club was this morning tied up and assaulted by armed robbers targeting the till after a housie competition.

Police were alerted to the robbery about 9.30am after the woman, who had been assaulted but not injured, managed to break free and get to a nearby business.

Units were quickly on the scene and cordoned off the area around the Hastings Darts Association clubrooms in Nelson St where she had been working.

The robbers struck the day after the club staged its weekly Thursday housie night.

They tied the terrified woman up and then left in the club's white Suzuki van, which has the name of the club emblazoned on the sides.

Detective Sergeant Brent Greville of the Hastings CIB said an undisclosed amount of money was stolen from a till at the club.

While the figure was unable to be confirmed it was understood to be around $1000.

The woman who was tied up was the sister of association president Kevin Pullen who was quickly on the scene after being told what had happened.

"I'm not worried about the van I'm just worried about her," he said as his sister, Chrissie, was taken away by police clearly shocked and in tears.

Mr Pullen said he had always been "worried" such an incident could happen.

"It was a big housie night last night and she comes in on a Friday to clean up.

"This is something that has always worried me - her being there on a Friday morning."

He said it was the first time in the club's 10 years on the site that it has been robbed and said they would now look at beefing up security.

"I have always told her that if anything like that happened she was to hand over the money."

The three men were all wearing balaclavas. It was not known at the time of going to press if they were armed or not.

Within an hour the van was found abandoned in Willowpark Rd near Akina Park, and police are appealing for witnesses who may have seen people leaving the area.

Staff next door at the Cancer Society told Hawke's Bay Today they had not seen or heard anything leading up the robbery.

NZH