The owner of an Upper Hutt dairy was confronted by a man wielding a weapon this morning.
Video / Supplied
An Upper Hutt dairy owner has published footage of a terrifying attempted robbery - where he was threatened by a man with a tyre iron - in a bid to help police track down the offender.
This morning just after 10am a man came into the Redwood Dairy and asked for band aids.
Owner Jugvinder told the man he did not have any in stock.
The man took off when he saw the owner reaching for something to protect himself with. Photo / Supplied
Jugvinder’s wife Manmeet spoke to the Herald this afternoon.
“He came back to frighten my husband and my husband couldn’t understand why that was. Then the guy tried to jump over the counter, so my husband stepped back and tried to find something to save himself,” she said.
“He grabbed a little stick and ran after him, but the guy left the scene.”
Manmeet said she usually opened the shop on a Sunday - and often had her daughter with her.
Today though it was only Jugvinder in the store.
It is the second time the store has been targeted in an attempted robbery. The first incident happened in 2023.
“This was really, really scary for me because usually I open on Sundays ... it could have been me and my daughter,” she said.
“My husband rang me then I just came up and I said, ‘We need to ring the police, we can’t take this lightly'.
“I rang the emergency number and then the police came in about 15 minutes and fetched the (security) videos.”
The owner ran after the alleged offender with a stick. Photo / Supplied
Manmeet and Jugvinder posted the videos on Facebook. They hoped someone in the community would recognise the alleged offender - who came in the first time with his face uncovered and was captured clearly on camera.
Manmeet said the man was driving a stolen car.
She asked anyone who recognised the man to contact the police as soon as possible.
“This is the only source of income for us, our only livelihood .. we work 13 hours a day to earn income,” she said.
She described people who targeted dairies and small businesses as “scumbags”.
“They might be coming from a bad background or they have a sad story from their family or their childhood was something traumatic. That is all secondary ... they’re robbing us and it’s not okay.
“It’s really awful.”
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