{"id":98096,"date":"2025-10-24T06:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T06:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/98096\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T06:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T06:45:07","slug":"police-investigate-britomart-assault-after-13-year-old-boy-robbed-of-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/98096\/","title":{"rendered":"Police investigate Britomart assault after 13-year-old boy robbed of shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey were headed to McDonald\u2019s in Britomart – a place we\u2019ve visited many times as a family, but this time was different,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Kurt said he was at home with his wife when he received a phone call about 3pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my son. He said, \u2018Dad, some guys have stolen my shoes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that he and his three friends were about to order their food at McDonald\u2019s when a group of about six slightly older teenagers with larger builds began watching them.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes, Kurt\u2019s son and his friends left the restaurant, but the other group followed them.<\/p>\n

Just outside, near the bike shelter, the group surrounded his son and his friend while his other friends stood a few metres away, Kurt said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the boys – who seemed to be the ringleader – said to my son, \u2018What are you looking at? I saw you looking at me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA 13-year-old boy in broad daylight was punched in the head and threatened with being stabbed if he didn\u2019t hand over his shoes. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n

\u2018Give me your shoes or I\u2019ll stab you\u2019<\/p>\n

Kurt said without warning, the alleged ringleader threw a left hook and punched his son in the cheek.<\/p>\n

The offender then reached into his bum bag and said; \u201cGive me your shoes or I\u2019ll stab you\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said his son did not want to escalate the situation or put his friends at risk, so he \u201csheepishly\u201d took off his new shoes and handed them over. <\/p>\n

He said his son managed to escape toward Te Ara Tahuhu Square, where they were followed. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was going in and out of shops saying, \u2018Can I hide in here? Have you got a change room I can hide in?\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cMy son and his friend took shelter in the Adidas store, where security quickly noticed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I quickly jumped in the car and headed into the city to make sure our son and his friend were safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kurt said not a single member of the public stepped in or seemed to notice the attack on his son. <\/p>\n

Police said they received a report about 3.40pm on Sunday, October 19, of an assault and robbery outside a Britomart business. <\/p>\n

Police spoke with two people and are investigating. <\/p>\n

\"AA 13-year-old boy in broad daylight was punched in the head and threatened with being stabbed if he didn\u2019t hand over his shoes. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n

Auckland CBD police presence <\/p>\n

Kurt said the police presence in the Britomart area needs to be elevated and better managed. <\/p>\n

\u201cA 13-year-old boy having his shoes stolen in broad daylight – what is going on in the world today?\u201d <\/p>\n

He said his son managed to withstand the punch due to his bravery and resilience, but took a day off school to recover. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been left disappointed that something like this could happen in what\u2019s meant to be a safe country like New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family is from Sydney and has been living in New Zealand for six years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident has sadly shone a light on a deeper, more troubling side of New Zealand that we hadn\u2019t encountered before,\u201d Kurt said. <\/p>\n

This incident comes after another unprovoked attack in Britomart McDonald\u2019s in the same week. <\/p>\n

A 13-year-old girl was allegedly blindsided in a brutal and unprovoked <\/a>attack while ordering food last Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Her mother said CCTV footage of the assault showed her being tossed around like a \u201dragdoll\u201d in a scene that left her friends shaken.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey were headed to McDonald\u2019s in Britomart – a place we\u2019ve visited many times as a family, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51973,74,17704,682,15117,72229,17898,6540,106,676,111,139,69,1118,1523,675,105,50557,62328,213,72230,18937,102],"class_list":["post-98096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-13yearold","tag-after","tag-assault","tag-being","tag-boy","tag-britomart","tag-didnt","tag-hand","tag-head","tag-investigate","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-over","tag-police","tag-punched","tag-robbed","tag-shoes","tag-sports","tag-stabbed","tag-threatened","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98096","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=98096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}