Onekawa shops: Faeces, threats and window smashings as addicts smoke drugs outside - ‘I was told my family could find my body wrapped up in a blanket’

The front window of Di’s Hair & Wig Specialists was smashed for the second time in five months.

A Napier hairdresser says staff are locking customers inside the store and then walking them to their cars after a cut, in a bid to stop them being accosted or assaulted by drug addicts and homeless people on the footpath outside.

Business owners at the Onekawa shops say they’ve watched the area spiral over the past six months into a place that now brings them near-daily harassment.

They told Hawke’s Bay Today they’ve experienced death threats, smashed windows, faeces smeared on their stores and in one case had a knife pulled on them.

They say the rise in aggressive behaviour, linked to drug use and mental health issues, is affecting their trade and making staff feel unsafe at work.

On June 1, a Sunday, the glass front door of Di’s Hair & Wig Specialists was smashed for the second time in five months.

Owner Di Foote said the shop was closed, but a witness saw a man sitting outside the salon about 6am, repeatedly banging on the window before it shattered.

“When he was sitting there, he was writing on the footpath ... he wrote ‘Mrs Notorious’ ... and also left a note with what appeared to be a Nazi symbol,” Foote said.

Graffiti reading “Mrs Notorious” and a note featuring what appears to be a Nazi symbol were left outside the salon after the window was smashed.

She has run the hair salon at the Onekawa shops for 12 years and says incidents like this and the growing sense of fear have become a problem only in the past six months.

“It’s getting worse and worse.”

Foote said the staff are now locking the door while working and walking clients to their cars.

“It’s awful ... They’ve asked a few of our clients for money, and one of them gave him food and he said, ‘I don’t want any food, I want your money’,” she said.

“They’re not homeless. They’ve got money, they’ve got the pension, and they all live in a house together.”

One business owner, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said he has seen people trying to get money for drugs in the area.

“They have been passed around out front during the daytime ... and it has led to more aggressive behaviour.”

Hawke’s Bay Today has seen footage taken by people in the area showing people using drugs in daylight near the Onekawa shops.

A few doors down, Kate, who’s owned a cake shop in the area for 13 years, says it should not be classified as a “homeless” problem.

“I think there does need to be a distinction between actual homelessness and the problem we’re dealing with, which is the behaviour either based in a background of mental health issues or drug addictions.”

She said the aggressive behaviour is an ongoing issue that has been affecting her business.

“If someone turns up in their car and they’re too scared to get out of their car, they’re not going to come back,” Kate said.

“But losing money is the smallest issue on the scale ... The main thing is the safety issue.”

She told Hawke’s Bay Today that she and clients and staff members have dealt with abuse, threats, overdoses, and even the smearing of faeces on her shop window.

Onekawa business owners say loitering, harassment and aggressive behaviour are increasingly affecting staff and customers.

The most serious incident recently was about two weeks ago, when a man pulled a knife on a resident, after being asked to move his car from a blocked garage.

“The knife was the length of his arm,” Kate said.

Staff member Kim said she was threatened after refusing to give one man hot water for his noodles.

“I didn’t want them to keep coming back,” she said.

“I was told my family would find my body wrapped up in a blanket ... I was too scared to come to work for a very long time.”

She took out a harassment order against the man, who no longer appears in the area, but she fears he could return at any time, she said.

“We don’t feel like we’re protected, we don’t feel like anybody really sees it as a serious thing that we’re dealing with,” Kate says.

She said they had asked Napier Assist and the police for help.

“No one has any answers and tends to pass the buck.”

A Napier Assist spokeswoman said they worked to de-escalate issues and reduce public exposure to nuisance behaviour, collaborating with police and relevant service providers.

“Over the past 12 months, Napier Assist have responded to 284 requests for assistance. This number is not specific to shopkeepers only, as we are unable to filter to that level.”

Onekawa-Tamatea ward councillor Richard McGrath, who is running for Napier mayor, says the ongoing issues have affected shoppers and businesses since December.

“It’s been a real problem,” he told Hawke’s Bay Today.

“[It] spills into the park next door with the drug users and rough sleepers leaving used needles outside the kindergarten and outside the Plunket, where kids are walking or playing.

“We even had some jump the fence and defecate in the Plunket play area – utterly disgusting behaviour.”

McGrath said the council alone could not solve the problem.

“The police, justice, health and addiction services need to do their part as they have the tools and are charged to resolve these types of issues,” he says.

“I would support more permanent cameras in the area with real-time monitoring to catch the bad behaviour before it escalates.

“I understand the police don’t have budgets for this, but council could surely, over time, increase its current network of cameras.”

Kate said she wants police to be “more proactive rather than just reactive”.

“Having police walking down a couple of times a day or even just once a day would be great,” she said.

Inspector Caroline Martin said Hawke’s Bay police were aware of anti-social behaviour in the area.

“Police continue to investigate any matters reported and are working closely with local council and businesses in the area to ensure safety for all,” she said.

She said a male has been convicted of trespass in relation to one of the incidents reported.

“Police have been and will continue to conduct visible patrols within the area.

“We encourage anybody to report any suspicious activity or offending to Police by calling 111 if it is happening now, or through our 105 service with as much information if it is after the fact.