“I don’t know when it’s going to stop. I want to show that this is a major problem in our society.”
One witness told the Herald she was walking past the petrol station with her co-worker when they saw the trio run from inside.
She said her co-worker tried to confront the youths but held back when he realised they were armed.
“It was quite surreal. You always hear about these things but watching it was completely different,” she said.
“I was shaking - I didn’t know how to react. Even though it was over in 10 seconds it was awful.”
Two customers were inside the shop when the trio bounded in, Kingra said, and after the fog cannon went off they ruthlessly and aimlessly smashed other parts of the station.
“These kids have no fear. No fear of the law or any consequences,” he said.
“I don’t understand what’s motivating them to do something like this in broad daylight. The damage they do - you can’t [describe that] with any words.
“It’s so disappointing. I want people to see how bad it is out there for retailers, even with all the security measures. We’ve had enough [of it].”
Kingra said his petrol station has bollards, roller doors, and the fog cannon seen in the security footage, but that was not stopping people from causing damage.
“It’s not good for our society, man. Even having all these measures in place, these kids are just on the loose.
“They came here with a baseball bat, a hammer, they smashed through the door. You just can’t do any more [to help your business].”
Police said they responded to reports of a robbery at the petrol station about 11.30am where a group of offenders entered the business with weapons, spoke threateningly to staff, took items and left.
Officers were making inquiries, police said.
But Kingra told the Herald police “had not done anything” regarding the previous robberies of his business.
“They say it’s too complicated, there’s not enough evidence - even though I have all the footage - and another time they caught the boys in the park five minutes [after a robbery] but I never knew what happened to them in the end.”
Returning Police Minister Stuart Nash wanted to quicken the scheduled reduction of dairies that can sell cigarettes and was engaging fellow ministers with the aim of preventing ram raids.
Last year, former Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall - now the Health Minister - successfully introduced the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill into law, which prohibited the sale of smoked tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009.
It also included a restriction on the number of businesses that could sell smoked tobacco products - no more than 600 nationally.
“I want these businesses to feel safe so I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver on, but what I am going to do is talk to the Minister of Health, Dr Ayesha Verrall, and see if we can somehow speed up the removal of tobacco from these dairies,” Nash said.
“If we can get the tobacco out of these dairies, I think that may solve the problem.”
But Kingra said, “Tougher laws need to be in place. I don’t think anybody will disagree - ‘Nashy’ doesn’t know.”
