Another West Auckland petrol station has been targeted by robbers overnight with the group making off with cigarettes.
Police are investigating an incident at the GAS service station on Brick Street in Henderson, where a group of brazen thieves smashed the doors and forced entry into the service station shortly after midnight.
One by one, they clambered through the shattered pane of the locked front door making their way into the shop and leaping over the service station counter straight towards their target - cigarettes.
"Last night around five past twelve I got a call from my son and he said, 'Dad we have a robber'," Gas Brick Street owner's father Harpreet Singh said.
But the four masked robbers only managed to start emptying the cabinet before Harpreet Singh's son, the owner of the store, triggered the fog cannon from the safety of his office.
The robbery is the second this year for the 24-hour Henderson service station.
In January before the fog cannon was installed, around $18,000 worth of cigarettes were taken.
And last year, a North Shore gas station that Singh's son also owns was ram-raided by a vehicle.
"It needs to be stopped, it really affects us you know financially and mentally, it needs to be stopped," Singh told Newshub.
On Sunday night, just a six-minute drive away from the Henderson petrol station, Zahid Chaudhry had his West Auckland store targeted.
Zahid credits the fog machine he has with deterring the wannabe robbers.
There are currently more than 500 fog cannons installed at petrol stations and dairies across the country - funded thanks to a Government initiative.
The cost of one of the machines sits at around $4000 and it's several hundred dollars to refill it each time it is let off.
"Everyone should have the fog cannon," Singh says.
Police were unable to confirm whether there are any links to the Brick Street robbery on Monday and the Swanson robber on Sunday night.
"Police are unable to confirm whether these two incidents are linked or whether there is any relation to other incidents over the weekend," a police spokesperson told Newshub.
"Police want to commend the actions of the victims in these incidents for their swift action in activating the fog canon, and contacting police as soon as safely possible.
But it's yet another warning to would-be robbers that this smokey-surprise will quickly foil any plan.
