Onward for Shoreward after ram raid

Ōrewa Gastrobar Shoreward quickly resumed trading after offenders reversed a car into the restaurant last Monday night and tried to set fire to the bar before fleeing the scene.

It is the third such incident along the main strip in the town centre. Earlier this month, Bossburger was twice targeted, first when a youth smashed the restaurant’s windows with a crowbar, and then when a stolen car was deliberately reversed into the premises. In the Bossburger instances, the offenders were filming themselves, raising the possibility that they may be part of a growing “post and boast” trend, where crimes are recorded and shared online in an attempt to gain notoriety. 

In the Shoreward Gastrobar incident, a stolen car was reversed through the front doors into the bar area. The vehicle’s occupants tried to set the bar on fire with petrol before fleeing on foot. It’s unclear if that incident was also filmed.

Shoreward owner Stephen Dalziel says he was alerted to the incident by the restaurant’s monitored alarm. Fortunately, a local resident walking nearby heard the crash and managed to extinguish the fire with the bar’s water fountain before any major damage was caused.

Apart from the doors, the interior was largely undamaged and the restaurant was trading again the next day.

“I’m annoyed but also grateful to the local community who have gone out of their way to be supportive,” Dalziel says. 

“It’s just a mindless act of vandalism.”

He said he found it particularly disgusting that the offenders had stolen a car with two children’s car seats in the back, without any thought or care for the family that it was taken from.

Further along the strip, Bossburger was first subjected to an attack in early September, when a youth armed with a crowbar started smashing its windows around 9.30pm. One of the owners was inside at the time, and saw the youth filming himself on a phone camera. When he went outside to confront him, the youth fled the scene on an electric scooter.

Two weeks later, a stolen vehicle was deliberately reversed into the premises late at night when the restaurant was closed.  CCTV footage again showed the occupants filming themselves, the owners said.

In both the Shoreward and Bossburger incidents, nothing was taken from the premises.

The Bossburger owners suspect they may have been targeted as they have a clear open space in front of the restaurant, allowing easy access from the road. Many other businesses had trees or other barriers in  front of them. They advised other businesses in the area to check their shop-front access to ensure they were adequately protected. 

They also called for increased crime protection design features in the area such as better store-front lighting, CCTV coverage and bollards.

“They are easy things to fix. We pay Council to use the pavement, so it should be made secure from the road.” 

Currently, street lighting along Hibiscus Coast Highway only illuminates the road, with the shops in darkness.

“We need that help with security, we can’t do it all ourselves,” they said.

Destination Ōrewa Beach manager Hellen Wilkins said that the events would be unsettling for the businesses involved and for the wider community who value Ōrewa as a safe and welcoming place, and encouraged businesses to use local crime prevention resources.

“More than 100 Ōrewa businesses are linked through a ‘Crimeshare’ WhatsApp group, where key crime information is shared quickly. This proactive approach has already led to the successful apprehension of several offenders and reflects the town businesses’ strong sense of connection, resilience, and collective responsibility,” she said.

A cybersecurity expert told Hibiscus Matters that it’s difficult to track filmed footage if it was a “post and boast” style incident as crimes filmed for notoriety are often shared through hidden online forums, encrypted chat groups such as Telegram or Discord, paste-and-leak sites, or hacktivist blogs, especially as mainstream sites such as Tik Tok and YouTube now rapidly flag and remove this style of content.

Police have asked anyone with footage or information that may assist to contact them via the 105 phone service or online at police.govt.nz/use-105, using Update My Report. People should reference job number 250930/2174. Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.