A Wairoa dairy owner who was held up at gunpoint said it had not put her off living and working in the district.
Sharon, who did not wish to have her last name used, and her husband Lee, have owned Riverview Dairy on Marine Parade for 16 months.
About 2.15pm on Thursday,
the pair were in the back of the store when a man wearing a balaclava entered the dairy.
Hearing the buzzer, Sharon walked to the counter where the man approached her and pulled a sawn-off shotgun from his bag.
``The gun was pointed at me and he asked me to empty the till for him and give him the money,'' she told Hawke's Bay Today.
Lee, hearing the commotion, came out from the back and instructed Sharon to follow the man's instructions.
The man then grabbed between $100-$150 and left the dairy on foot.
Sharon said it was lucky there had been no other customers in the shop at the time.
``It was scary, I was just following what he wanted me to do.''
Afterwards she called the police and closed the shop for the afternoon.
The Gisborne Armed Offenders squad was called to an address in Waihirere Rd later that night where a 25-year-old local man was arrested. He appeared in the Gisborne District Court yesterday charged with aggravated robbery.
Sharon said she was grateful to the local business owners and police for their assistance.
While she found it hard to believe an armed robbery would happen in ``little Wairoa'' it hadn't put her off working in the area. ``Wairoa's still safe compared to other districts,'' she said.
