Auckland liquor store staff turned the tables on an attempted armed robbery after locking a would-be burglar inside the shop he was trying to steal from.
At about 5:25pm on Sunday evening, a man armed with a screwdriver entered the Melrose Liquor store in Mount Roskill where he allegedly demanded money.
Manager, Josh Kanakia told Newshub he left the store and locked the alleged offender inside using the external security grill, at which point the offender began throwing the cash register and fire extinguisher at the shop door trying to get out.
"We tried to stop him in the inside (sic), well he tried to come out breaking through the shop front."
Kanakia said he and the staff were "lucky to escape", telling Newshub the offender tried to throw the store's refrigerator towards the locked doors too.
"Had someone been in there, definitely would have got hurt bad or probably killed, in the way he was aggressive," Kanakia said.
After failed attempts to break through the shop front, the 38-year-old offender escaped the locked shop by climbing through the roof.
A police spokesperson said the man then fled the scene on foot, where the Police Eagle helicopter tracked him and by 5:40pm he was arrested.
But Kanakia fears crime like this will continue to occur.
"Looking from the past experiences we've had, nothing happens to them and they just keep coming back, until the time someone does get hurt real bad, it'll just go on," he said.
"It's just like a regular affair, it's nothing new, I think people should know."
The 38-year-old man is due to appear in the Auckland District Court on Monday, and police say no one else is being sought in relation to the attempted armed robbery.
Police say they continue to encourage people to report all crimes to police rather than taking matters into their own hands "as you could be putting yourself at risk".
"The most important message for the community is to call 111 if you see something happening now, or 105 if it’s after the fact, passing on as much information as you can."
But Kanakia told Newshub the quick action to lock the offender inside was out of fear the offender wouldn't get caught.
"We actually ran out to save our lives, rather than with the intention of locking him, but he was more interested in getting the till out so we could lock him in."
Kanakia said he had applied to the crime prevention fund, but at the time of his application, he didn't meet the criteria.
He told Newshub his application failed because he had not yet been a victim of an armed robbery.
Kanakia is now calling for the criteria to be dropped.
"I don't think you should wait until something happens," he said.
"It just becomes very difficult for small businesses where nothing has happened to qualify and just wait until something does happen."
He said with or without the fund, the bottom line is a small business like his can't afford quality security measures.
