Ram raid cleans out Onehunga 2degrees store

A group of young men smashed their way into a 2degrees store with a car early today before cleaning out the stock and fleeing on foot.

Aneek Ranita Ratnam, who lives across the road, said she was woken by what sounded like a bomb going off outside her Onehunga apartment at 3.50am.

"We were woken up at 3.50am by what sounded like an explosion. Then we heard glass smashing. I live directly opposite the store in an apartment and witnessed everything first-hand."

She filmed everything while her partner called police.

It is believed the three men broke into the store using a stolen car and escaped on foot. Photo / Supplied

"The four guys were the ones who broke in using a stolen car and escaped on foot."

She said they had been woken up throughout the night by Waste Management crews emptying rubbish bins but the noise of the ram raid was something else.

"I knew that didn't sound right. I got up to see what was happening because I had seen these kids jump out of the car and go under the roller doors, that's when I knew what was going on and because they were so well covered up I thought 'how am I going to do this' and thought someone needs to record this."

So she told her partner to phone police while she sat there and filmed the burglary.

Miss Ratnam said it was the third burglary she had experienced in the Arthur St area since she had lived there for the past eight months.

The group were well-organised, she said, as each went to a different section of the shop. "One went to the right, one went to the left and one to the centre."

It looked like the shop was cleaned out of its stock. Police told her the burglars appeared to have used a stolen car to break their way in.

"They cleaned out everything that was on the shop front, maybe over 30 phones that they had on display."

She said since the 2degrees store opened about three months ago it had been subject to numerous amounts of tagging and appeared to be the only store in the Dressmart complex which was targeted.

She said Onehunga had a massive problem with burglaries and wanted either the council or police to install CCTV cameras in the area that they could access when incidents happen.

She had also had her car broken into three times while another family member had their car stolen.

"I don't feel comfortable at all anymore ... it's very severe, the burglary issue. I love the area, it's local and handy but it's crazy and I feel like [burglaries] aren't being looked into enough."