Children in getaway car as woman with methamphetamine habit robs store

Two young boys were in a car driven by a woman as she robbed a Rotorua store, it has been reported.

Cassie Rae Latemore had children in the car when she and associate, Jonathon Garrett, 24, held up the Kawaha Point Superette on March 22 last year, Fairfax reported.

Details of the children's wild ride were revealed in court documents.

The documents state Latemore fashioned a knife that Garrett brandished at the shopkeeper during the robbery.

Latemore owed a "significant amount of money" to drug dealers for her methamphetamine habit, the documents said.

Shopowner Ankur Patel chased Garrett to the car and planned to use a metal pole he kept behind the counter to smash the window but he baulked when he noticed the children, Fairfax reported.

"Then I see the kids inside, they don't know what's going on," Patel told Fairfax.

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