CCTV footage shows Island Bay dairy and vape shop Sai Food Store was broken into by three young robbers using a hammer. Video / Isha Patel
Dramatic footage shows hammer-wielding thieves breaking into a Wellington dairy - the city’s second smash-and-grab burglary in less than a week.
Masked crowbar-wielding thieves broke into the CityStop convenience store on The Terrace just after 5.30am on Sunday, stealing cigarettes, vapes, and a slab of ice cream.
“Sad feeling but what can I do?,” CityStop owner Shailesh Patel said.
Early on Tuesday, Island Bay dairy and vape shop Sai Food Store was broken into by three young people using a hammer.
Isha Patel, 21, whose parents have owned the shop for 20 years, was in bed watching TV in the family’s home attached to the business.
“I heard a bang, I originally thought it was an earthquake so I didn’t think much into it then I heard it again and I thought ‘oh f*** we’re getting ram-raided’.”
The offenders smashed the glass shop-front, before kicking down a metal barrier and raiding the store, she said.
CCTV footage shows one person climbing across a barrier to enter the connected vape store, which the family had recently set up to comply with new regulations.
Another person went to the till to get cash, and the third filmed the break-in on a phone before going to their car to get a bucket to carry the stolen items.
Patel woke up her sleeping mother, who was “shaking” in fear, as they watched the thieves raid their business from the next room via CCTV cameras.
“It was so scary. I was on a call with 111 and was shaking.”
Patel said she decided to confront the thieves as they were raiding the store.
“I opened the window and started yelling at the people that are robbing us, just screaming at them, there’s one guy in the car and he’s just looking at me”, she said.
She managed to get a good look at the trio before they fled and said they looked “really young”, around her age or younger.
Patel says she and her mother were “shaking” in fear, as they watched thieves raid their business from the next room via CCTV cameras.
Patel said police arrived soon after, and found a backpack, torch, and a bicycle tool left behind.
She said the family were “still a bit shaken up” but had already made repairs to the shopfront and had the business back up and running.
Ethan Manera is a multimedia journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 and is interested in politics, local issues and the public service. Ethan is always on the lookout for a story and can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz or messaged on X (formerly Twitter) @ethanjmanera
