Six young people playing with BB guns plunged Glenfield Mall into lockdown on Sunday, but co-owner Dallas Prendergast is just glad it was a false alarm. Video / NZ Herald
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The owner of an Auckland mall plunged into lockdown over reports of a "gunman" yesterday, hopes it was just a "one-off".
Glenfield Mall co-owner Dallas Pendergast told Focus a member of the public alerted Countdown security that they had spotted a group of young men in the supermarket with what they believed to be a firearm.
"Countdown immediately called our security to assist with the issue," Pendergast explained. "The guards then made the decision to immediately close down the mall."
Countdown's roller gates were put down while customers and staff were ushered into a safe room.
Pendergast said mall security was trained on how to handle such an incident, but it wasn't something they had experienced before.
"We haven't had anything like this happen before but we have been concerned about the number of issues around shopping malls throughout New Zealand and it is something that we're very aware of," she said.
"We're a family mall and we don't attract undesirables in normal circumstances so I hope that this is a one-off."
Pendergast added the response was "absolutely called for".
"We were unsure about the situation and the members of the public that reported it said there were firearms on these people, they didn't know of course that they weren't life-threatening but they could've been so we always treat things as the most serious situation just to be sure," she said.
"Everybody was very happy with the procedures that took place because everything that we train for, worked. That's very satisfying and comforting."
Countdown turned down an interview but said in a statement: "Despite what would have been a scary situation, our team did everything right to keep our customers and each other safe… Our store security guard also remained on-site throughout the lockdown."
