Watch: Rotorua dairy manager recounts early morning aggravated robbery

A Rotorua dairy manager has been left terrified after an aggravated robbery this morning.

Sunset Pricecutter Superette manager Harshil Bekaria had just opened his Sunset Rd shop when two men entered the store and forced him to open the cigarette cabinet.

“I opened my shop at 7am. By 7.15am I heard a big noise so I thought some customer had fallen on the ground or something.

“But when I came out from the back to see there were two guys, one with the spanner, and one with bare hands so he can grab the things,” Bekaria said.

“They took me from the back and they forced me to open the cabinet and then I pressed the panic alarm so the cops were here in a couple of minutes.

“It was really terrifying with all that’s going up at the moment,” Bekaria said.

CCTV footage supplied to the Rotorua Daily Post shows one of the offenders carrying the money till then leaving it on the counter of the shop while taking cigarettes instead.

Harshil Vekaria holds the broken door in front of the empty smoke cabinet. Photo / Andrew Warner

A police spokesman said police responded to a robbery at a “small business premises” on Sunset Rd about 7.15am.

The business is between Tete St and Haynes Cres.

The spokesman said police had been searching the area for the offenders.

As of 6pm, inquiries were still under way to find the offenders.