'I am not scared of these scumbags': Store owner beefing up defences after raids

News
Crime

Author: Kelly Makiha,
Publish Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2023, 9:52AM

The owner of six liquor stores in Rotorua and Tauranga says he feels forced to spend more than $100,000 on security measures to protect his livelihood and staff from criminals.

Charanjit Dhillon, who owns five Rotorua Bottle-O stores and one in Tauranga, spent yesterday going around his stores with a builder and metal engineer pricing up installing bollards around each store and fixing metal grates and bars to the buildings.

His Ngongotahā Bottle-O store was targeted in the early hours of New Year’s Eve by would-be thieves who tried to ram-raid the front of the store.

Security footage shows the car ramming the store five times before three people get out and start trying to kick and rip their way in. Failing to gain entry, the masked trio leave - one throwing both arms into the air as they walked away.

Police have not made any arrests.

The damage cost Dhillon thousands to fix and now he’s not prepared to go through it again.

He said he needed to install bollards at all six stores and had been told the ones he wanted would cost $800 to $1000 apiece. He said the Ngongotahā store alone would need at least six bollards. The metal grates for the doors and walls and bars for the windows would be a separate cost.

He estimated he would need to spend at least $20,000 per store.

He wanted to do it as soon as possible but would need to seek council permits for the bollards.

An example of bollards outside an Auckland dairy. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Dhillon already had roller doors and top-of-the-range security cameras, which are connected between the stores so they can all help keep an eye on each other.

But he said roller doors were no longer good enough to keep ram-raiders out.

He said he needed to take the extra step to stop the thieves even considering his stores to prevent the hassle like he had on New Year’s Eve.

He was thankful for a local builder who gave up going fishing with his family on Saturday to spend time boarding up the front of the Ngongotahā store.

Ngongotahā Bottle-O was attacked by would-be thieves in a ram raid on Saturday morning. Photo / Supplied

The front of the store was boarded up by a builder who was meant to spend the day fishing with his family. Photo / Supplied

Dhillon said police needed more power and ram-raiders of all ages needed to be held to account.

“This is a message to the Government. Well done. Now this beautiful country will have shops that look like a prison.”

He said even if he could keep the thieves and ram-raiders out overnight, staff still had to deal with thieves during the day - which was another reason he said, in his opinion, the Government was too soft on those responsible.

Dhillon has become known for his no-nonsense approach to theft attempts after chasing a man out of his store in March with a pair of nunchunks.

Charanjit Dhillon chased a man out of his store with a pair of nunchucks. Photo / Andrew Warner

Dhillon — a former Bollywood movie choreographer, kickboxer and long-distance runner — said he chased the man, who was carrying a box of bourbon and cola, for about 100m before his pants fell down, he dropped the box and ran off.

Just this week, Dhillon said he again had to stand up to more potential thieves at his Fenton St store. Three men wearing hoodies, caps and face masks tried to go into the store on Monday at 4.20pm so Dhillon immediately went to the front door and stood in front of them.

“I was just calm and put my hands up.”

He said he told them if they wanted to come in they needed to remove their masks and hoods. He believed they intended to rob the store.

“I am not scared of these scumbags, I will do what it takes but I also need to protect my family, customers and staff.”

He called police and was impressed five police cars arrived within two minutes but the men had already run off.

Police confirmed they attended but no arrests were made.

The Government had previously committed to helping businesses most at risk of repeat burglaries, such as ram-raids, with aid from a $6 million fund.

The fund was announced in May in response to a spike in ram-raids.

The money, which comes from the Proceeds of Crime Fund and is managed by police, is intended to pay for physical barriers outside stores, such as bollards or planter boxes.

But the programme has repeatedly been criticised for being too slow with too many restrictions on criteria.

Police Minister Chris Hipkins and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash announced additional measures last month to improve safety in small shops and at-risk surrounding areas.

These included $6 million in new government funding for councils and providers, a fog cannon subsidy scheme and crime prevention products for small retail victims of aggravated robbery.

The fog cannon scheme will start in February and is open to eligible small retailers and dairies that want a fog cannon installed, with a $4000 subsidy paid directly to the supplier and retailers paying the balance.

Crime prevention activities funding valued at $4m was given to high-risk areas Auckland, Hamilton and the Bay of Plenty and $2m was given to support intensive services and youth engagement.

The additional support included extending the retail crime prevention programme that helps pay for things such as fog cannons, roller doors, sirens, strengthened glass and bollards.

Dhillon said he understood he would not be eligible for many of the funding initiatives because he owned too many stores. He said there had been criticism about the criteria being too involved and funding taking too long to reach retailers.

“We have to go through a long process so instead of wasting my time, I will have to spend my money. The Government providing us with a fund is not a solution. The solution is to tighten up on the kids who are doing this.”

He said he wanted to see tougher penalties for offenders and media granted the ability to identify youth offenders via youth court so people knew who to look out for. In most circumstances, the media can only report the names and photographs of offenders aged 18 and older appearing in adult courts.