An Auckland business owner who helped fight off thieves trying to rob a Remuera watch shop has recalled the dramatic incident, saying he doesn't feel like a hero.
A group of men, one of them armed with an axe, attempted a mid-afternoon smash and grab of the watch shop About Time in Remuera at around 4:20pm on Monday.
Incredible footage has emerged showing how locals rallied together to confront the thieves and stop their escape.
The owner of About Time, Rebecca Alexander, told NZ Herald the locals who tried to stop the thieves were heroes.
"We had a couple of heroes, the man from the kebab shop happened to be cutting up carrots with quite a substantial machete-type knife - he rushed out and started attacking them or the car," Alexander said.
Co-owner of Pro Consult Stuart Hobbs was one of the locals who ran down from his store to confront the thieves and is seen in the footage attacking one of the robbers with a sign, before following them to their car where he rammed them from the passenger side.
Hobbs told AM on Friday he didn't feel like a hero.
"It was just a gut reaction, it was instinctive," he told AM co-host Ryan Bridge."It was either flight or fight and for some reason, my brain decided to switch into fight mode. You don't think about it, it just happens - so fight mode it was."
Hobbs said when the thieves first started attacking the watch store, he thought it was someone dragging bins down some stairs.
"So we run our rubbish bins down the stairs every Friday and they make a thumping noise going down the stairs, 'bang, bang, bang,'" he said.
"So I thought somebody was dragging a bin down the stairs, which was very unusual for a Monday, so I said to one of my colleagues, 'That's rather unusual, who's taking the bins down the stairs?' She said, 'No, that's not a bin, they're attacking the shop again,' and then the penny dropped."
Hobbs said after experiencing his own robbery at a house he's building, that encouraged him to try and confront the thieves.
"We are a pretty tight community, I think we all get on very well and we help each other and that's what it's about.
"I think the incredibly important thing here is to bear in mind that… it's us who's in control, it's our community and so and that's why I did what I did.
Hobbs said he wasn't worried about getting hurt during the ordeal.
"That's not something you think about at the time and it could've gone that way just as easily.
"I wouldn't recommend that anybody do the same thing if the same situation arose but I was reasonably comfortable with them. So I just decided it was my turn to get rid of them, not them get rid of me."
Hobbs said even though police do a "wonderful job", he feels it's up to the public to help tackle the rise in robberies.
"I think the police are doing a wonderful job, I really admire them but they can't be everywhere at the same time," he said. "So we need to take control of our own defence systems, for the sake of a better word - so better cameras, better bollards and then everybody keeping an eye out at the same time."
If a similar incident occurred, Hobbs said he would respond similarly and even joked the thieves would have a bigger fight next time.
Watch the incident and the full interview with Stuart Hobbs above.
