Footage showing the aftermath of a jewellery store smash and grab in which bystanders confront the group of thieves has left AM's hosts shocked.
The robbery occurred at Ellerslie Jewellers & Engravers in Ellerslie, Auckland, just after 4:30pm on Monday.
Video obtained by Stuff shows a group of masked thieves carrying hammers and sprinting out of the store to their getaway vehicle.
Two women chase the robbers across the road to try to stop them, with one of the women threatened with a hammer.
As the thieves speed off in their vehicle, one of the women is knocked to the ground but was uninjured.
In a different video obtained by NZ Herald, another group of bystanders can be seen trying the slash a rear tyre, while another person tries to smash the windscreen with a chair. A third person opened the driver's door looking for the keys.
AM played the video from Stuff on the show on Monday to the horror of the hosts.
"This is exactly what we didn't want to happen because we have spoken about this at length, haven't we?" AM co-host Ryan Bridge said.
"There is a growing sense that nothing is being done about these things, the Government isn't being hard enough on them, there aren't enough consequences and they keep happening as they do so people are taking matters into their own hands."
Fellow AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green added she could understand why bystanders took matters into their own hands.
"You can understand why, there were shop owners, there were other people who were at neighbouring businesses, they intervened out of frustration that this keeps happening in their streets," Chan-Green said.
A witness who owns a nearby bakery told Newshub the smash and grab was "scary".
"What happened yesterday was I was making pastry out the back and my staff started screaming, 'next door break-in, next door break in'. So I was running from the back to the front and I could just see the car leaving," witness Jason Hay said.
"I just tried to help a neighbour to pick up some pieces and [put] everything back on the counter. [It was] shocking and scary."
Hay said this wasn't the first time the jewellery store had been robbed.
"It happened in the past many years ago, they backed the car to the front door, at the same jewellery store, and this time they do it in daylight, it was very scary," he told Newshub.
"We are all worried about that and I'm very thankful to our community for all standing up and helping to stop this from happening."
National Party's police spokesperson Mark Mitchell said he shares the publics' "frustration" but urged them to leave confronting offenders to police.
"I acknowledge the courage of members of the public who tried to stop fleeing offenders from an Ellerslie jewellers yesterday," Mitchell wrote on social media.
"I share the frustration but please leave this to the Police. Tackling offenders armed with hammers and machetes puts us even closer to a tragedy."
Police said the robbery occurred on Main Highway just after 4:30pm and they "quickly" took a number of people into custody following an incident.
"A group of offenders entered the store and smashed cabinets before fleeing in a vehicle," a police spokesperson said.
"Police immediately responded to the area, with support from the Air Support Unit, Eagle."
The spokesperson said the alleged thieves were found nearby on Lunn Avenue and are assisting police with their enquiries.
