A Rotorua fuel station has been ram raided on two consecutive weekends, causing “major” damage and disruption.
The Sunday morning raid on the Challenge Rotorua fuel station on Malfroy Rd comes just hours after a business in Ngongotaha was also targeted, prompting fears from the business community which says they’ve “had enough”.
Challenge Rotorua owner Harpreet Singh said he was alerted about 1.26am. He and his staff had been cleaning up since and working out what was missing.
A police spokeswoman said police were called about 1.30am to a commercial premises on Malfroy Rd after a report of a burglary where a vehicle had been used to gain entry and a number of items taken.
The offenders were not immediately located and inquiries were ongoing, the spokeswoman said.
Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post, Singh said the ram raid had been “major” with one point-of-sale system broken and the coffee machine “destroyed.
“Obviously, no one’s feeling safe at the moment,” he said.
“I wanted to have a day with my baby today but obviously, I had to come and clean up the whole site this morning.
“Having a similar thing happen in the span of seven days - you haven’t even put the first paperwork together for the insurers.”
Singh said his business did not have an operational cigarette cabinet because ram raiders took “the whole cabinet of smokes” in the first ram raid.
The fuel station now only had one operational point-of-sale system which was creating an issue when serving customers, he said.
“You really want to provide a service and you can’t now because half of the things are down.”
Singh said police told him they were going to install bollards at the premises after it had been targeted in six or seven ram raids in the last 24 months.
“But nothing’s happened.
“Your family feels sorry for you - I’ve got a baby, I’ve got a wife who doesn’t even feel safe anymore because it happens so frequently in the last two years. And they’re like, ‘should we stay in the business’?
“The problem is getting these things back to normal is not easy.”
Every time the station was ram raided, its insurance premiums increased, he said.
“We’ll keep our head above the water - we’ll try our best.”
Singh’s concerns about the installation of bollards were put to the police but a spokeswoman said they were unable to comment on this before publication.
On Saturday, police were called to a shop on Ngongotaha Rd at about 4.50am following a report of a burglary where a vehicle was used to gain entry.
The business owner affected declined to comment.
However, another business owner located two doors down watched it all unfold on his CCTV footage.
He also asked not to be named as “everybody is too scared and they have had enough”.
The footage shows two cars pulling up while one rams the front of the store. Then two individuals allegedly appear to run inside the shop and then out again.
The brazen acts were “getting out of control”, he said.
“They are doing robberies in the daylight and at night time. Last week there were three ram raids. "
His business had been targeted before and the burglaries and ram raids were creating fear.
Police said in a media statement that inquiries into the Ngongotaha attack were ongoing.
A police spokeswoman said this morning there were no further updates at this stage.
Last weekend, three Rotorua businesses become victims of ram raids.
Within about one hour, stolen vehicles were used to gain entry to Rosedale Superette on Te Ngae Rd, Springfield Superette and Lotto on Otonga Rd and the Challenge fuel station on Malfroy Rd.
Later, police found the vehicle that had been used to ram into and escape the fuel station engulfed in flames on Ford Rd.
Springfield Superette and Lotto owner Raj Kumar said at the time a stolen vehicle used to ram-raid his business had a “baby seat in the back” and probably belonged to a young family.
Kumar, a former Rotorua Lakes councillor who has spoken out before about impacts of retail crime, said it was the first time his store had been ram raided.
- Additional reporting Carmen Hall