By PAUL YANDALL
HAMILTON - A Claudelands dairy owner was attacked with a softball bat during the latest robbery on a retail store - days after a similar attack in Auckland left a man dead.
Sram Mehedi said he was working with his brother in the family's Peachgrove Dairy when two men entered the shop around 6 pm on Saturday armed with the bat.
"One went straight for the till while the other one stood near my brother.
"He just ripped the whole thing off the bench and took off."
Mr Mehedi said that when he went to stop the pair he was struck in the back with the bat, but fortunately suffered only minor injuries.
"It was not too bad. I think I was pretty lucky actually," he said.
The attack came four days after a brutal attack on a Fiji Indian shop owner in South Auckland.
Shiu Prasad died last Tuesday after being stabbed in the head, neck and abdomen at his Mangere liquor store.
He was buried on Saturday.
Mr Mehedi said his family had owned their small corner dairy for almost a year and a half and had not been robbed before.
The assault had left them shaken, but the shop was open for business again yesterday.
Hamilton police were at the store yesterday morning taking fingerprints. Sergeant Jim Casson said the robbers, described as Pacific Islanders or Maori, in their early twenties, ran off into the neighbouring Hamilton Boys High School.
Mr Mehedi's father said his family had emigrated from Pakistan to New Zealand because they believed "it would be a safe place to live."
He said the family had lost "thousands" of dollars in the raid, but that they had built up considerable goodwill in the community and would continue to trade there.
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