A mall in Hamilton has become the latest to be targeted in a spate of ram raids across the country.
Police confirmed that a group used a vehicle to smash their way into Centre Place Shopping Centre around 3.15am today.
"The offenders used a car to access the main entrance and are believed to have stolen items from a shop in the mall," said a police spokesperson.
"Inquiries are under way to identify and locate the offenders involved. At this stage there is no further information available."
Earlier, Hamilton police were called to reports of a ram raid at a liquor store on Lynden Ct in Chartwell around 2.45am.
"The offenders were unable to gain entry and abandoned the car at the scene, fleeing in a second car," said a police spokesperson.
This comes after workers at a small Hamilton grocery store were left shaken after it was targeted by a gang of youths on the weekend in a brazen knifepoint robbery, despite there being plenty of witnesses in the car park and dining at a next-door restaurant.
Some of the bystanders filmed as the group of roughly five to eight hurriedly dumped trays of cigarettes on to a laundry basket at the entrance of SuperValue on Gordonton Rd - all cramming into a single white sedan as they fled the scene roughly a minute later.
Earlier this week, a toy store, an Indian takeaways shop, a Mad Butcher, a Michael Hill and another retailer across Auckland were also hit in just one night earlier this week.
Speaking to the Herald, the owner of Toyco said they were alerted to the break-in by a security company, which said a glass-break detector had been activated.
The store on Wagener Pl in Mt Albert was broken into around 10.42pm on Sunday evening.
With the number of burglaries and ram raids plaguing the city, they said they were facing staffing issues.
"From a business owner, I guess it makes it harder for us to staff the shop with people who are a little more afraid of things that are going to happen."
Meanwhile, this week the Government unveiled a package of measures aimed at dampening a youth crime spike in Auckland.
The move comes as ram raids have increased more than 500 per cent, with 357 having occurred across the country this year.
The $53m package, called Better Pathways, included $23m for the Youth Guarantee programme that supported 16 to 24-year-olds with low or no qualifications to re-engage with education or get into employment.
Almost $5m would extend the Ākonga Fund to the end of next year to support ākonga/learners (aged 12 to 21 years old), who had been adversely affected by the impact of Covid-19 to stay with education.
Over three years, $23m would enhance the He Poutama Rangatahi initiative that focused on young people at risk of, or already participating in, youth or organised crime.
Almost $2.5m would be tagged with the purpose of supporting 232 families with children most at risk, through various programmes.
Another $600,000 - along with funding pivoted from initiatives with similar purposes - was pledged to Kotahi te Whakaaro, a joint agency response to young people involved in crime in South Auckland.
The approach, created by the South Auckland Social Wellbeing Board, brought together members of police, Oranga Tamariki, Counties Manukau Health, education, Kāinga Ora, the Ministry of Social Development, local non-government agencies and Te Iwi o Ngāti Kahu to review cases of youth offenders caught in the preceding 24 hours.
Children's Minster Karen Chhour weighs in on the incident at a South Auckland YJ facility.