Shop owner attacked with hammers

Roger Steeg will close the doors of his Hastings store one last time as soon as he recovers from wounds suffered in a daylight robbery yesterday afternoon.

Two men wielding hammers left the Discount Smoke Shop owner in hospital with serious injuries and horrific memories and no desire to reopen the shop.

Speaking from his hospital bed this morning, Mr Steeg said he was in the shop yesterday afternoon when the two assailants entered the shop.

"I started screaming because I thought my neighbours would hear but they didn't. I screamed and screamed and yelled and my door was open but no one did anything," he said.

"I thought I was going to be killed. I thought I would die. It felt like I was an animal about to be killed."

The 48-year-old said he felt lucky to be alive but had a small skull fracture and lacerations to his head and body.

"They took everything they could find and they loaded up my car," he said.

Mr Steeg opened the shop four weeks ago and had been sleeping at the shop for the past week because the alarm system had been destroyed.

Today the Heretaunga St West shop was taped off by police as investigations continued. But even after police are finished with the shop Mr Steeg has no intention of reopening it and his dream of owning a shop is over.

"I couldn't do this again" he said.

It's not just his own safety he is worried about but the idea of putting his wife or friends in a similar position, which has him scared.

He said he couldn't believe the attack could have happened in Hastings.

"I have lived here for four years and everyone I have met has been so nice," he said.

Detective Sergeant Luke Shadbolt of Hastings police said that in the past four years no garage, pub or hotel around the Stortford Lodge shopping centre, which includes the smoke shop, had escaped being robbed.

Mr Shadbolt said police were today still hunting the robbers who carried out the "extremely violent" attack.

They stole an unknown quantity of cash, cigarettes and the keys to the victim's white Honda station wagon which was found torched a short time later in Wellwood Rd, Hastings.

The victim yelled for help for about 20 minutes before he was discovered by members of the public.

This morning Mr Shadbolt said investigators had no leads but were hoping for some information from the public.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY