A shot has been fired through the front window of a Tauranga takeaway shop - but owner Claire Currie is still waiting for police to turn up to investigate two days later.
The 67-year-old owner believes it was most likely a bullet that punched a clean 1cm hole in the window of her Avenues business - raining glass debris through the shop.
Ms Currie, owner of Fourteenth Avenue Seafoods, returned from a shopping trip on Tuesday morning to find the hole and glass shards.
It appears someone had fired a gun or air rifle at the shop, she said.
When she entered she found that whatever had caused the hole had left a trail of glass that went over the front counter and ended at the back of the shop.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw how far the glass had gone. If it was a bullet it would have gone right through someone at the counter," she said.
"Was it a prank? Was it somebody out for destruction? Was it a bullet? I just don't know." She has been unable to find the projectile.
She phoned Tauranga police but was put on hold and then put through to an Auckland police communications centre operator, who asked her whether she had any enemies or if she had had a fight.
"I get along with everyone around here - I certainly don't have any enemies," she said.
The operator recorded details of the incident and said the case would be referred back to Tauranga police.
But that was the last Ms Currie has heard.
"I'm not sure what the police would have done but I thought they could have come by and had a look," she said.
Western Bay Police Area Commander Inspector Mike Clement today told the Bay of Plenty Times he was unaware of the incident but would be looking into why Tauranga police had not responded.
He said calls to Tauranga police station sometimes did get put through to the police communications centre in Auckland.
"It usually depends on the urgency of the situation," he said.
Ms Currie believes whoever put the hole through her window must have done so between 9.30am and 10am. She is sure it wasn't there when she left to go shopping that morning.
Ms Currie checked with her neighbours and said they hadn't noticed anything unusual. Some of the houses along the street were empty at the time and the people working in the neighbouring dairy told her they could have been in the back of the shop when it happened.
"In 23 years working here I have never seen anything like it and I have to say it makes me a bit nervous," she said.
She eventually cleared up the glass and after looking long and hard found nothing that might have been responsible for making the hole.
She has had the window temporarily fixed and said because it was made of thick industrial-grade glass it would probably cost more than $500 to replace.
"The glazier said whatever went through the window must have gone through with considerable force to make such a clean hole," she said.
"I don't know what to make of it."
