Police are investigating if an aggravated robbery at a Michael Hill store on Sunday is connected to a spate of other recent jewellery store heists across Auckland.
Shocking CCTV footage from Monday has emerged of the moment staff and customers fled in terror, as the offenders smashed their way into the store and stuffed bags with gold and jewels.
It came just days after masked thieves looted a jewellery store in south Auckland on Anzac Day.
At 5:30pm on Anzac Day, footage shows a car pulling up outside Glitter Jewellers in the south Auckland suburb of Manurewa.
The group of five masked offenders ran into the store and smashed their way through the second entrance.
Staff and customers fled in terror as the offenders swooped in and smashed several cabinets - stuffing bags with gold and jewels.
It unfolded right in front of Glitter Jewellers employee Navita Shee's eyes.
"We are definitely very, very scared," she admitted to Newshub.
"The next day, 5:30pm hit and I just kept looking outside and at the cameras, thinking they're going to come again."
Navita believes the robbery was "definitely pre-planned".
"When you look at the camera, they knew exactly where to go," she said.
Glitter Jewellers is a family-owned business. They moved to New Zealand in 2008.
Navita's father, Manoj Singh Shee, agreed they feel unsafe following the incident.
"We're paying tax, we're paying GST, but feeling not safe," he stressed.
"You can see why people are leaving this country, you know? They're not feeling safe," Navita added.
They said police have "never come back" following the robbery.
From the jewellers, it's just a short walk around the corner to the local police station, and yet the owners of the store told Newshub it took police about ten minutes to get there.
However, police have launched what they're calling Operation Dusk to investigate if what happened here in Manurewa is connected to other jewellery heists across the city, including an aggravated robbery on Sunday in Westgate.
A bystander filmed offenders as they smashed through cabinets at the Michael Hill store at Auckland's North West shopping mall.
West Auckland resident Ross Karl was standing at the entrance to Specsavers inside the mall, when he heard smashing glass.
"They closed the doors, they locked us in for fifteen minutes, and then the whole place got evacuated," Karl told Newshub.
Last week, a jewellery store in Westfield Newmarket was robbed - for the second time in nine days.
"I think people are reading about these things every day in the news and hearing about them and worrying about them so when it happens near them they feel helpless."
Helpless is just how the Shee family are feeling, after doing everything right by equipping the store with CCTV, a fog cannon and even a double entrance.
"It's just such a scary feeling... I get goosebumps," Navita admitted.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told Newshub he has reached out to the family and spoken with them.
Mitchell said he has "utter sympathy" for the family, and everything they have been through.
However, he admitted the rise in retail crime is going to take some time to get to the bottom of.
He also acknowledged that there are "deep social issues that this country is grappling with".
