Shopkeeper thought robber was joking

The owner of a Pukekohe dairy who was robbed at gunpoint almost two weeks ago thought the burglar was joking when he demanded money.

"I thought he was joking, and then I thought he wasn't ... because he was a stranger," the man said yesterday.

The owner of Parkside foodmarket, who did not want to be named, said he realised the offender was serious when he saw the gun.

The shop was robbed around 4pm on June 10 by a man carrying what looked to be a sawn-off shotgun.

The owner said he was glad the shop was empty at a time when there were normally plenty of children buying lollies.

"It's just as well there weren't any kids here, they might have been hurt," he said.

Police have failed to find the offender, despite an advanced surveillance system in the store.

The owner said the video footage was of good quality but it had not helped the police.

"I have the best footage but the police haven't done anything," the man said.

Footage of the offender was published in yesterday's Herald, showing the gunman holding up the shopkeeper and escaping with the contents of the till.

The owner said a woman who was waiting outside the shop wrote down the getaway car's registration number and the police arrived soon after.

The shop's surveillance system has a monitor sitting on a shelf in a prominent place with views from four cameras around the store.

Despite the security system, the owner said there was nothing more he could do to protect his shop and his staff.

He said he did not have a panic button under the counter to alert police but he thought it would not help anyway.

"If I pressed it they would just shoot," he said.

He was cynical about the attention he had received from the media.

"If nothing had happened on Sunday [the killing in Eden Terrace] then no one would have come to see me," he said, referring to the television crews and journalists who visited him yesterday morning.

The owner said he would install a fifth camera soon to provide views of another part of the store.