Victim advised to lock car doors

While South Auckland police are busy meeting "speeding ticket quotas", criminals are getting away with brazen purse-snatchings and graffiti attacks, says a disenchanted shopper.

Denise Lindsay's car was still moving when the passenger door was wrenched open and her purse taken at Westfield Manukau on July 3.

"He reached in, snatched my purse, shoved it under a sweatshirt-jacket thing, and ran. It was terrifying. It was that split-second terrifying moment."

Westfield Manukau shopping mall has 1885 carparks, and is visited by 7.8 million shoppers a year. But when Mrs Lindsay reported the theft to Manukau police she was told by a non-sworn staff member that bag-snatchings were common in South Auckland, and police simply did not have the staff to do anything about it.

She was told to drive around with her doors locked and handbag hidden, issued with a complaint number for insurance purposes and sent on her way. As Mrs Lindsay was making her complaint, another member of the public arrived at the station to report young people tagging a building just down the street.

That person was told that there were no police staff available to investigate so nothing could be done.

"It wasn't that they didn't care about it, it was that they were stretched, that there was nobody available to do anything about tagging or purse-snatching," Mrs Lindsay said.

Manukau Central police area commander Inspector Alan Shearer said yesterday there was little police could do to prevent purse-snatchings such as Mrs Lindsay had experienced but police were working with Westfield shop managers "to put things in place to reduce incidents of this type".

"We can't guarantee it is going to stop everything, but it is something we are working on," he said.

Mr Shearer defended the actions of his staff in offering tips to ensure such thefts did not happen again, as "we can't be everywhere at every time".

He would not comment on Mrs Lindsay's suggestion that police concentrate on stopping thieves instead of issuing tickets, because "it's quite political at the moment".

He said police in South Auckland areas such as Botany and Otara had had recent successes in stopping bag-snatchings and opportunistic crimes.

Mrs Lindsay, who lives in St Heliers, is determined not to return to South Auckland soon.

"I am not going to Manukau again, unless it is to the airport," she said.