FreshChoice Lyttelton ram raided by a group of burglars. Video / Supplied
The owners of one of the seven Christchurch dairies hit in an overnight crime spree is contemplating shutting up for good amid a crime crisis for small-business owners.
The targeted stores were spread across the entire city, as far west as Wigram and south as Lyttelton - a MetroMart on a busy highway and two local dairies in Woolston and Russley among those hit.
A FreshChoice supermarket was ram raided, CCTV footage from the incident showed four people ramraid the store and attempt to smash in the cigarette cabinet.
“It’s not fun anymore,” one dairy owner told the Herald as she contemplates shutting her store, while another said his business friends feel their shop will inevitably be targeted.
“This has been news for a year now, all my business friends know this is going to happen to us,” he said.
Cutts mini mart ram raid Christchurch. Photo / George Heard
It began at 2.45am when a shop on Centaurus Rd in Huntsbury was broken into.
Fifteen minutes later, the MetroMart on Sparks Rd in Halswell was targeted, a large hole smashed into the glass shop front and shards scattered inside the store’s entrance.
Despite the apparent damage, the store - which has been burgled a number of times in recent history - has remained open to the public this morning.
The manager declined to comment but did mention the offenders unsuccessfully tried to access the tobacco cabinet at the back of the store.
Another 15 minutes after the MetroMart was broken into, another shop on Wigram Rd was hit.
Halswell MetroMart was targeted in a string of overnight burglaries.
Another 45 minutes passed and police identified a fourth shop that was hit on Hopkins St in Woolston - a local dairy owned for more than twenty years by Preeti and Hermant Patel.
The couple have had their fair share of incidents over the decades, about five years ago they were ram raided and on another occasion held up by a group of machete-wielding hooligans.
This morning, the offenders smashed in their dairy’s door and took a few store goods - candyfloss, ice creams, chocolates and a couple of vapes.
Preeti Patel told the Herald they were considering their future in the business after the incident.
“It’s not fun anymore with this problem of theft, violence and burglary,” she said.
Preeti Patel stands outside her dairy, one of seven stores broken into across the city overnight.
“It makes us really ask questions about whether it’s really worth it anymore, at the beginning it was fine, I would be here alone until close but now it’s a different environment.”
Half an hour after the Patels’ dairy was targeted, offenders ramraided the FreshChoice supermarket in Lyttelton.
The incident was captured on CCTV cameras inside the store, showing four people breaching the shop’s entrance with a car and running into the store in an attempt to steal the product.
It appeared the thieves were intending to loot cigarettes from a locked cabinet, they were unsuccessful in their attempts and instead left the shop with considerable damage.
The supermarket’s owner, Rob De Thier said the offenders threw bottles of wine onto the ground out of “frustration for not getting the cigarettes.
“It’s a sad indictment on society,” he said.
“I might put a couple of bollards up, but again it’s sad I have to look at doing that.”
CCTV footage shows the offenders attempting to break into the cigarette cabinets of FreshChoice Lyttelton.
Then, another ram raid was then spotted at 5.15am on Bassett St in Burwood.
The most recent incident occurred on Cutts Rd in Russely, the scene of the Cutts Mini Mart which was also ram raided shortly after 6am.
In a statement, Christchurch Superintendent Lane Todd said inquiries were under way to determine whether the incidents were linked and to locate the offenders at large.
Nobody has been arrested in connection to the burglaries at this stage.
“Anyone who has information that could assist with inquiries is urged to contact Police.”
