Secure tobacco call follows store raid

CCTV footage from the raid.

Police are urging businesses selling cigarettes and tobacco to store them in secure vaults bolted to the floor after thousands of dollars worth of tobacco products were stolen from a Northland supermarket.

Three thieves disguised in hoodies smashed their way through the front door of the Maungaturoto Four Square on Hurndell St about 12.55am yesterday. The trio used a bar to force open a locked cabinet before carting off hundreds of packets in what looked like a large sack. The businesses had been locked and the alarm set by the owners when they left about 10pm on Monday. Maungaturoto police Senior Constable Llew Smart said the thieves spent less than a minute grabbing the smokes before fleeing. "Businesses really need to secure these items almost in safes or boxes that can be bolted to the floor," Mr Smart said.

"It's about making it too hard for them to steal it."

He urged anyone who may have noticed any suspicious behaviour of vehicles in the area to contact police. He also said anyone who was offered cheap tobacco products to phone police immediately. The owner of the store did not want to be named but said he was still collating the exact figures for the stolen product. "It's a very stressful time for us and I'm working with the police," he said.

On January 1 tobacco and cigarettes rose by a 10 per cent due to a tax increase, the third consecutive annual rise. The tax increases started in 2011 and over the past three years the tax has increased by 40 per cent. A pack of 20 cigarettes on average is about $20, while a 30 gram pouch of tobacco is around $40.

Foodstuffs public relations director Antoinette Laird said despite the price hike tobacco products had always been kept under lock and key at the various Four Square, New World and Pack 'N Save supermarkets.

"There has always been tight security around these products."

She said at the point of sale locked cabinets were used and in storerooms tobacco was locked away. Mrs Laird said it was too early to say what they could learn in terms of security from the latest Northland burglary. It is not the first time large quantities of tobacco has been stolen from businesses in the region. Last September thieves in a stolen truck rammed a service station at Oakleigh but stole nothing only to ram raid the Four Square at Ruakaka and steal tobacco and cigars. Two men in Gisborne have been arrested and are appearing in the court for those crimes.

In September 2011 members of the public dobbed in two men sitting on the roof of a Tikipunga service station. Detective Sergeant Shane Pilmer said when police arrived at the Gasoline Alley on Paramount Parade about 4am, two men were on top of the building with a stack of cigarettes worth $25,000.

They went through the roof into the station. An 18-year-old from Rotorua and a 38-year-old man from New Plymouth were charged with the burglary.