{"id":220042,"date":"2026-01-06T18:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220042\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T18:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:36:10","slug":"west-auckland-dairy-robbery-axe-wielding-youth-allegedly-demanded-cash-from-teenage-staff-before-fleeing-with-chips-and-drinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220042\/","title":{"rendered":"West Auckland dairy robbery: Axe-wielding youth allegedly demanded cash from teenage staff before fleeing with chips and drinks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another staffer, who was outside when the ordeal started, rushed into the store and went through the side safety gate to get behind the counter and told Patel\u2019s 18-year-old son, who was working, to run.<\/p>\n

Patel, then received a call from the staffer and contacted the police, who arrived quickly and arrested the alleged robbers nearby, he said. <\/p>\n

The situation lasted around 30 seconds, Patel, who was upstairs during the incident, told the Herald. <\/p>\n

No cash was taken. <\/p>\n

Detective Senior Sergeant Megan Goldie said police received a report of the group entering a dairy on the road with a weapon about 7.40pm on Monday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe alleged offenders have then taken a number of items before police quickly arrived and took them into custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin minutes of the aggravated robbery being reported,<\/a> three youths were located and arrested, which is a great result.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alleged lawbreakers were aged between 11 and 15, Goldie said. <\/p>\n

The incident had left two children who had been helping out in the dairy during the school holidays scared to work, Patel said. <\/p>\n

It was the first armed robbery Patel had experienced in the near decade he had owned the store, he said. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s really scary, it\u2019s very hard to work behind the counter.” <\/p>\n

Patel installed safety equipment, such as barriers between the counter and the store, smoke machines and security cameras, a few years ago when other stores were being targeted by retail crime such as ram raids.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Three youths have been referred to Youth Aid Services following the incident. <\/p>\n

Goldie said police are committed to holding \u201cthose who choose to commit these crimes to account\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anyone who witnesses suspicious or unlawful behaviour should call 111 as soon as possible, Goldie added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another staffer, who was outside when the ordeal started, rushed into the store and went through the side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1554,7818,95,51,132489,9218,6932,1039,7224,51502,17247,15037,71,132490,9258,111,43,139,69,2738,74756,27517,312,1516,1458,5163,10706,13082,3807,102,1079],"class_list":["post-220042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alleged","tag-allegedly","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-axewielding","tag-before","tag-cash","tag-chips","tag-dairy","tag-demanded","tag-drinks","tag-fleeing","tag-from","tag-froze","tag-juvenile","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-owner","tag-robbers","tag-robbery","tag-says","tag-staff","tag-targeted","tag-teen","tag-teenage","tag-trio","tag-west","tag-with","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}