KEY POINTS:
A female shopkeeper working alone used a baseball bat to ward off a teenager during an armed robbery at Tauranga's Fraser St Foodmarket yesterday.
Surinder Kaur was alone in the foodmarket when she was threatened with a knife about 10am.
"He showed me the knife and said 'give me cigarettes and money'," she said outside the dairy yesterday.
"I said 'don't touch me, take it and go'. He looked a bit scared when I showed him the baseball bat."
Mrs Kaur said she thought the teen was more scared than her.
The youth took an unknown quantity of cash and cigarettes before running off towards the CBD but a passing police patrol acting on a tip from a neighbour arrested a youth nearby.
Mrs Kaur was on her own in the shop but Puran Singh, who runs the neighbouring Novelty Indian Food Takeaways, was quick to call 111.
"It's not too safe any more," he said.
"I used to own this dairy and this is the first time it's been robbed but there have been robberies all over Tauranga now. It's not good for us."
Mrs Kaur is helped in the shop by family members, including 17-year-old son Pardeep Singh.
They were now likely to make sure their mother was not left on her own.
Tauranga police said a boy, aged 16, had been arrested and charged with aggravated robbery.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
