Police look for connection between armed robberies

File photo / NZ Herald

Police are looking at whether armed robbers who held up a cash-in-transit van on Auckland's North Shore yesterday are responsible for similar robberies.

At least two men, one of them armed with a sawn-off shotgun, held up security officers outside Westpac Bank at the Albany shopping mall about 10.30am.

They took off with an undisclosed sum of cash in a stolen getaway car and drove to nearby Pak'n Save, where they dumped the vehicle and got into another car, Detective Senior Sergeant Kim Libby of North Shore police told NZPA.

"At that stage they were seen by a couple of witnesses in Pak'n Save. They were quite heavily disguised and only one of them got out of the car at the robbery scene," Mr Libby said.

The driver of the car was tall and thin. He was wearing a dark, charcoal grey hoodie.

The gunman was a shorter man, of thin build, with possibly a green bandana round his face. He was wearing gloves, a zipped-up hoodie jacket and very long black shorts, with socks pulled up.

"Some instructions were spoken but it wasn't very clear. There appears to be two men who did the robbery but there could have been another person in the getaway car under Pak'n Save," Mr Libby said.

The offenders were probably waiting in the area for the van to arrive, and may have been following it.

"Obviously there's an element of timing and planning which has gone into it and it's worked to good effect."

Mr Libby said police were looking at similar robberies to see if there was any connection.

On Thursday, another cash-in-transit van was robbed at gunpoint in the Hamilton suburb of Chartwell.

The escape vehicle, a green and silver Subaru Forester station wagon, was found in nearby De Vere Crescent.

It was seen being driven around Lynden Court and the Westfield mall area, so had been near the robbery location for some time, police said.

The first offender, who was holding a firearm, was light-skinned Maori or Polynesian, 1.83m to 1.89m tall, of muscular build.

The second man, holding a metal bar, was also light-skinned Maori or Polynesian, about 1.78m tall.

Police appealed for any information about either incident.

- NZPA