By Malini Yugendran*
Sandip Patel was hospitalised after an attack on his Hamilton East dairy in 2018. Photo: Supplied
A harrowing seven-minute attack left dairy owner Sandip Patel with a fractured skull and massive scars - both physical and psychological in nature.
The attack started when an assailant armed with a machete and an accomplice stormed into the 50-year-old's Hamilton East store in 2018.
The assailants targeted him with ruthless precision, inflicting grievous injuries to his abdomen, elbows and thighs that required as many as 30 stitches to stem the bleeding.
Patel's agony didn't end with the attack - he was hospitalised and spent three gruelling months in intensive rehabilitation.
"An unrelenting fear persists, as I remain ever-vigilant, acutely aware of my surroundings and the people who enter my store," Patel says.
Patel's journey towards healing began with a month of counselling but, five years after the attack, the scars - both seen and unseen - persist.
Miscarriage misery
A brutal attack, the gruesome severing of a thumb and a heart-wrenching miscarriage are the shocking aftermath of yet another violent incident at his diary in Frankton, Hamilton, targeting a small business owner in New Zealand.
In December 2022, Puneet Singh received a distress call at about 7am. Turning on the surveillance footage, Singh saw one of his workers sprawled on the floor. On arriving at the scene, he saw a gruesome sight - the assailants had severed the victim's thumb and Singh watched as the detached digit was placed into a bag.
Puneet Singh, owner of Irvine Street Dairy & Vege Shop. Photo: Supplied
"Nightmares haunt (the victim) to date, and he often wakes up in the middle of the night, reliving the horrific moment when he begged for mercy while being ruthlessly attacked," Singh says. "His hand is still incapacitated. Tragically, the trauma also took a toll on his wife, who suffered a miscarriage just 10 days after the incident due to the immense stress."
Singh, 34, said one of the assailants attacked the victim with a machete as he deployed the fog cannon.
Although several months have passed since the attack, Singh says he still jumps every time the phone rings and starts panicking when it's a call from his store.
Attacked twice
Manish Thakkar, 50, has been the victim of an aggravated robbery not once but twice.
His Parkwood Supervalue dairy in Chartwell, Hamilton was attacked first in August 2022 and then later in March this year.
"I was at the counter serving customers when three men rushed into the store," Thakkar recalls of the latest attack. "Before I could react, one man jumped over the counter and pinned me to the floor. Then another started punching me and the third man pointed a gun at me. I was bleeding all over."
Thakkar, who needs at least six employees to operate his Parkwood Supervalue store, has struggled to find replacements for the three who quit after the 2022 incident. It took him nearly a year to replace those who resigned and had to hire them from India.
"People are increasingly reluctant to enter the dairy business due to safety concerns," he says.
Thakkar is conscious of the threat to personal safety that employees face when working in his store.
"Today, when hiring staff, we educate them on how to handle robberies," he says. "I even remember asking a university student if he was sure he wanted to take the job because it has become such a risky industry.
"Honestly, I feel dejected and, sometimes, just uninterested, as I face fear for the safety of my staff and myself. Coming to work is a challenge every day."
The aggravated assaults are not isolated incidents.
Police statistics show that there has been a 57 percent increase in aggravated robberies in the year to July 2023. A staggering 1738 violent incidents were reported in Auckland, while 414 incidents were reported in Hamilton.
The offences have garnered so much attention, especially in the Indian and Chinese communities, that they have become a dominant concern among voters in the upcoming election.
Smoke and mirrors
Police spokesperson Ginny Andersen says the Labour Party is committed to providing protection to small businesses such as dairies that are being targeted by violent offenders.
"The government is committed to ensuring the safety of our retailers, which is why we've provided over $35 million in safety features to retailers through the Police's Retail Crime Prevention Programme and MBIE's Fog Cannon Scheme," Andersen says.
Photo: Supplied
Himanshu Parmar, ACT Party candidate for Hamilton East and a victim of violent crime himself, criticized the government's decision to allocate an extra $11 million for additional fog cannons when the initial installations did not reduce crime.
"The government should focus on addressing the root issue of repeat offending, particularly by both youth and adult offenders, rather than investing in more fog cannons," Parmar says.
Parmar was the victim of two robberies in just four days in July 2019.
"My hands are shaking as I speak," he says, reflecting on the time it has taken to get over the trauma of the attacks.
Petrina Hargrave of Victim Support says professional support is often needed to cope with the fear that persists after witnessing a violent attack.
"This kind of experience really threatens a person's sense of safety and trust in the community, so if it happened in the workplace, they may no longer feel safe there and may be constantly on edge and fear being attacked again," Hargrave says. "In the long term, there's a real chance of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder."
Stores owners that have experienced an aggravated robbery face additional hardship in the form of extra costs due to higher insurance premiums that inevitably come after filing a claim.
Dairy owner Chirag Patel experienced this firsthand after being attacked in January.
"Once there has been a claim, it becomes an arduous task to find insurance companies that are willing to cover you," Patel says.
Thakkar hired a security guard for three months after his store was attacked in 2022, but soon discovered there is a limit to how much they can do.
"They cannot tackle robbers as the law does not permit it," he says.
"Robbers … resort to aggression because they want to prevent victims from using panic buttons or triggering fog cannons," he says.
Manish Thakkar SuperValue store owner with his wife, Rupali. Photo: Supplied
A call to action
Thakkar, who is also president of the Waikato Retailers Group, would love to see a reduction of crime in New Zealand.
"I yearn for New Zealand to be rid of crime and to recapture the essence of the country I initially arrived in and chose as my new home," he says.
Thakkar calls for stricter laws to be implemented that would impose severe penalties on criminals, regardless of their age.
Chirag Patel agrees, saying the punishment handed down to offenders is too light.
Singh says the parents of young offenders should also be held accountable, suggesting that "benefits should be conditional on their participation in rehabilitation."
A police spokesperson says counselling services are available for victims of aggravated robberies.
"Police automatically refer victims to Victim Support if they are the victim of a crime/offence defined by section 29 of the Victims Rights Act," the spokesperson says. "That requires the police to refer people to Victim Support. Aggravated robbery is among these offences."
Victim Support's Hargrave says it's important to intervene early when victims of aggravated attacks seek support.
"Timely and early support is important in helping people cope after crime," Hargrave says. "Victim Support provides emotional support such as listening, normalising and validating what the victim is going through and supporting them to identify ways to cope.
"We can develop a support plan with the victim and provide information on their rights, what happens next and how the justice process works."
Hargrave says statistics show that 37 percent of victims would have dropped out of the criminal justice process if it had not been for the help, they received from Victim Support.
"With only 19 percent of crime in New Zealand reported, we know there are thousands more victims who need our support," Hargrave says.
Victim Support
- To get help: 0800 victim (0800-842-846)
- To volunteer: 0800-86-58-68
* Malini Yugendran is a communications scholar and freelance contributor who focuses on issues that are relevant to the South Asian and minority communities.