Hamilton police have found four children aged 7, 10, 11 and 12 holding stolen toys at the scene of a break-in at a shopping centre last night, with one of the children injuring themselves in an attempt to get away.
The Chartwell Shopping Centre in Hamilton was the target of the early morning toy thieves. Photo: Google Maps
Police said multiple alarms alerted police to the break-in at Chartwell at about 1am.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found the four children holding stolen toys and other goods.
Hamilton City Area Commander Inspector Andrea McBeth said the 11-year-old ran off after seeing police, but was not chased by officers who stayed with the other three remaining youths.
But while fleeing, the boy fell about 8 metres to the ground, injuring his arm. He was soon found by police and taken to hospital in an ambulance.
The children have been referred to Youth Aid Services.
"It is important to note that resolving this type of youth offending is an issue that does not fall solely on police," said McBeth.
"This is a social and community issue and parents have a responsibility to know where their children are and to ensure they are safe.
"We need our communities to work alongside us and partner agencies to support and steer young people down a better path."
She said a detective was investigating the full circumstances of this latest matter.
"We have been dealing with ram raids for some period of time with young people, but this age is next-level concerning." - Hamilton City Area Commander Inspector Andrea McBeth
McBeth told Checkpoint some of the parents were "not in a state to look after them". There were "difficult social factors" relating to some of the children's backgrounds, with poverty and addiction issues at play, she added.
"Once we apprehended all four of the young people we got in touch with their guardians or parents and had conversations with them about what had taken place," McBeth said.
"In relation to some of the parents they were not aware and other parents were actually not in a suitable state to look after the children, which potential gives them any opportunity to leave home in the early hours of the moring and that has allowed the offending to take place. Some of those parents that we did talk to were very concerned and upset at what had taken place."
The children are now with appropriate guardians, except one child, who is receiving medical care after falling from a high wall attempting to evade police.
McBeth said the boy received immediate medical attention after the incident.
The children had gained access into the building by breaching a glass door, and there had been no vehicle involved.
She said the ages of the offenders was shocking.
"We have been dealing with ram raids for some period of time with young people, but this age is next-level concerning. These are really young children and by all accounts when they were apprehended by our staff, they saw them as young children, not something you'd class as a offender out in the early hours of the morning out to do a burglary."
Twelve-year-old behind the wheel in dairy robbery
Meanwhile, a 12-year-old girl who was allegedly driving a getaway vehicle was one of five people taken into custody after a dairy in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn was burgled on Sunday night.
Police patrolling in the area noticed the front door of a dairy on Williamson Ave was damaged just after 11pm.
Three people were then seen running out of the store holding hammers and getting into a waiting vehicle, driven by a 12-year-old female.
The Police Eagle helicopter followed the vehicle until it left the Southern Motorway at Mt Wellington, where the driver lost control in the wet conditions and the vehicle slid into a tree. Nobody was injured and all five occupants were taken into custody.
Police said a large amount of stolen property was recovered from the vehicle, including a duffle bag full of cigarettes.
Three have been referred to Youth Aid following the incident.
There have also been several cases of youths involved in ram raids recently. It is understood some incidents have been recorded and posted on popular social media platform Tik Tok. Police say these posts are motivating youth to take part in crimes and they are talking to social media companies about the trend.
Technology expert Paul Spain told Checkpoint social media teams had limited resources to search through and filter out such content, much of which helped generate clicks and money. There was no existing legislation for government to compel these firms to address the problem, he said.
Introducing new legislation would be problematic, Spain added.