A police car smashed through the front of a Mount Maunganui shop today - forcing the store to close for at least three days and costing up to $30,000.
The incident happened at upmarket designer gift shop Innersense, on Maunganui Rd, shortly before 1.30am.
Police were unavailable this morning to comment but
the Bay of Plenty Times understands the crash happened while police were tracking a man through downtown Mount Maunganui after he fled from a police car.
Innersense owner Allen Mills said he received a call about 1.30am from his security company, advising him a police car had gone through the glass shopfront.
"It was little bit surreal when I got the call. I thought it was a hoax call at first. I was shocked when I arrived at the shop and saw the damage," he said.
"The scene was pretty spectacular as glass and damaged stock was strewn right throughout the 12 metre long shop."
Mr Mills who established the shop for three years said he put in the shopfront himself and estimates to replace the glass and the aluminium joinery would be about $15,000 and he is still counting the cost of the damaged stock.
Innersense is an upmarket designer gift shop, selling unique items, including jewellery and designer furniture .
Mr Mills is unsure how long the shop will have to be closed possibly three to four days but it could be up to a week and meaning a loss of turnover of between $10,000-$15,000, he said.
"It's the worse time for this to have happened as we have just stocked up for our Christmas sales but I am just grateful no one was in the shop at the time."
Mr Mills said he is yet to speak to police about the circumstances in which the police left the road but can only assume there was some kind of car chase.
Mr Mills said there is no barrier on the road to prevent any car leaving the road.
Mr Mills said he was told that a police officer stayed at the shop until a security guard arrived so no stock taken.
Mr Mills said the whole incident is "pretty ironic" as his new manager Claire Hale, who came on board three days ago, will be spending her fourth day cleaning up broken glass. The current manager Christine Clarkson is spending her last day cleaning up the mess.
Mr Mills had also just sent out invitations to 300 of his customers for his ladies night Christmas sales launch which is due to held next Thursday.
"I want to reassure those invited that the launch will still go ahead."