Ram raiders have struck again in Auckland, this time targeting shopping malls for high value goods.
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In the dead of the night, three stolen cars drove into an Auckland mall where they hit Noel Leeming and other shops, coming away with electrical goods and clothes.
Footage of the burglary shows a large group of young people following the cars into Ormiston Mall.
Police have not confirmed whether the ram raid is linked to another on the other side of town at West City Mall, where a jewellers was broken into.
Yogesh Thapar works at a salon opposite Noel Leeming and said he did not know what to expect when he arrived to open his store for the day.
"The front door was just completely broken and Noel Leeming third time and Postie first time it has happened so we are worried now what is going on here."
The inside of the Noel Leeming store after it was hit by a ram-raid. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Ormiston Town Centre is newly built, having opened just over a year ago.
Thapar said it was the third ram raid at the shopping centre in a year, and felt like it is a matter of time until his place was hit.
"If the car comes inside it can smash anything, so it can affect anybody. Just increase security here, put barriers both sides and security must be here all the time in the mall."
Police said cleaners and security staff were at the town centre when the ram raid happened, although no one was injured.
The centre is owned by Todd Properties. In a statement it said it was concerned about the increase in ram raids across Auckland and would be increasing security at the town centre.
Police said there were multiple offenders, all of whom got away in two of the stolen vehicles.
Noel Leeming was one of the shops that was broken into. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Local resident Surekha Mubarak was a regular customer at the shopping centre and said the police needed to do more to prevent ram raids.
"It's really shocking. Our community is so good and this is happening again and again. We would like the police and security to look after us, our community."
Louis Duan was also a regular customer and was concerned it had happened in his neighbourhood.
"It makes people not feel safe because it has happened nearby, in our community."
Police said the majority - 88 percent - of ram raiders were under 20 and most were under 17.
Manukau ward councillor Efeso Collins said the prevalence of young people involved in such crime had been a topic at regular meetings between police and community groups.
"We know that there's a high number of young people who aren't in training school or work at the moment and those are the young people we've got to focus on," he said.
"When they're working with youth workers they've got community navigators they're standing alongside ... instead these ram raids show us there's real poverty in the community."
Store owners like Yogesh Thapar just wanted to feel safe at work.
"I will say please don't do that it's affecting the business a lot because we are already going through Omicron."
He said the shopping centre retailers had made it through lockdowns and could not sustain more ram raids.
Photo: RNZ / Screenshot
Ram raids 'really distressing' for staff, owners and customers - Retail NZ
Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said ram raid crimes were "definitely growing in significance".
"It seems to be becoming increasingly commonplace ... it's really distressing for the staff, the owners and customers of the businesses concerned.
"Businesses are looking at how they can harden up their defences. Can they put bollards outside to stop cars ramming into them and so forth. But one of the problems with that, of course... it means that the bad guys might be moving their attention to other stores.
"What we really need to see is some social change where people come to accept and understand that it's just not the way we want to live - in a world where people can drive cars into retail stores, often causing tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage."
Harford said he did not believe the apparent rise in ram raids was a result of poverty.
"I think what we're seeing in a lot of cases is people either doing this for fun or perhaps have some sort of gang initiation ceremony.
"Liquor stores, in some cases, couple of bottles of something's being taken, you know, which isn't caused by poverty, it's being caused by some other social issues."