Police on the scene of a robbery attempt at Michael Hill in Napier on Tuesday. Photo / NZME
Police on the scene of a robbery attempt at Michael Hill in Napier on Tuesday. Photo / NZME
One staff member is understood to have received injuries as four masked people smashed their way through a Napier CBD jewellers on Tuesday and fled in a stolen car.
The raid happened soon after 3pm at Michael Hill Napier, in the historic Bowman Building on the corner of Emerson andMarket streets.
A witness said people could be seen leaping onto and smashing display cabinets before fleeing the store, past startled patrons in an on-street hospitality area in Market St, the getaway car apparently backed-in from the Tennyson St end.
Police said they received multiple calls at about 3.10pm, but at about 5pm had no information on whether the stolen vehicle used in the raid had been found or whether anyone had been apprehended.
They said it appear four people entered the store and threatened staff, before taking items and fleeing the scene.
“It appears a person was struck with a weapon and has received an injury,” the police said in a statement.
Beers seemingly abandoned by bar patrons in the street as robbers rushed past after raiding the Michael Hill Jewellers store in the Napier CBD on Tuesday afternoon. Photo / Doug Laing
The injury was not believed to have been serious and an ambulance did not appear at the scene until 20 minutes later.
“The man is being checked by medical staff as a precaution,” police said.
One witness told Hawke’s Bay Today several people in the street appeared to use phones to capture images of the escapers as they fled.
One witness said she heard a crash saw what she thought were six to seven people inside smashing the displays and grabbing stock.
Police patrols and an ambulance in Market St, Napier, soon after the robbery at Michael Hill Jewellers on Tuesday afternoon. Photo / Doug Laing
One appeared to have a “machete” with them, a witness said.
It was the second smash-and grab raid in Napier in less than a week, with at least four people thought to have been involved in an incident at about 1.15am on January 28 in the forced entry of the Z Mataruahou petrol station, just to the west of the CBD.
They were reported to have fled, with cash from the tills, in a car that had been parked on or near the forecourt.
One young person was reported to have been apprehended in the day after that raid, but police late on Tuesday had no update on that inquiry.
Soon after the jewellery robbery, Hawke’s Bay police were called to an incident in which a man was reported to be attacking an ATM in the street about 20km away in Flaxmere.
Police said they were treating that incident as one of “disorder”.
