Robbed dairy owner ready to respond to crime

Hemant Kumar keeps a hammer and stones in his shop to fight off robbers. Photo / Kenny Rodger

A dairy owner robbed of nappies and biscuits by a knife-wielding 13-year-old girl keeps a hammer and heavy stones behind the counter for when thieves strike.

Hemant Kumar was alone in the Dissmeyer Superette in Otara on Monday afternoon when the girl threatened him with a long kitchen knife as she made off with a bag of nappies, two packets of toffee pops and a carton of milk.

Mr Kumar saw what she was doing and went to confront her but froze when she pulled out the knife.

"She showed me a big knife as she was going out of the door. I was so scared," he said yesterday.

He said he could have done more during the latest incident but never reacted when something like a knife or gun was used.

But he pointed out where he keeps the hammer and two stones. "I have broken three windscreens," he said. "When people run I take the stones and throw it at the windscreens."

In all three cases the people dropped the items they had stolen out the window.

He didn't have time to get the stone during Monday's incident because he was busy writing the number plate down and a customer had been in the store.

"I was so threatened that I didn't want to go get the number. But if I don't go get the number, they're gone."

Mr Kumar said he was so sick of the robberies that he was training a dog to attack people who came into his store and stole from him.

"I'm training a dog myself and we will just go for them now. I was a breeder in Fiji, I bred them and trained them ... they'll go for it," he said.

He bought a German shepherd called Hughy two weeks ago and had started training him to bite. A sign warns that a dog is on the premises.

"It will bite on my instruction. If a criminal comes inside, he won't kill him but will drop him down."

Mr Kumar said he had trained police dogs in Fiji so knew what techniques to use.

He had the dog jumping over fences of a nearby park and said he would even use his own hand for him to practise biting on.

"I'm training him to go for the leg - the muscles - but not to kill someone."

He hoped to have Hughy ready for action within two months.

"It's getting worse for dairy owners. I've been through these cases before. Once before, in 1999, I had a gun at me at my chest."

That incident happened at another superette in Mangere when he and his brother-in-law were closing up. They lost about $300.

* Police found a knife in a red Nissan Sunny yesterday morning and a 13-year-old girl is being dealt with by youth aid officers. They are still looking for three others who were outside the dairy during the robbery.