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Three break-ins in one night resulted in a hammer flying through the window of Simon Waby’s car as he attempted to catch the thieves.
On March 14, between 2am and 3am, three people broke into Gull Matakana and the Matakana Liquor Store before heading to Snells Beach where they burgled another Gull station.
All the forced entries involved the offenders throwing rocks or bricks through the building windows.
Simon, who lives 200 metres from Gull Snells Beach, says he was awoken by the sound of the alarm from the petrol station.
“I rushed out to the road to see what was going on. A car went speeding by with no headlights on so I got in my car to chase them,” he says.
He followed them into Virginia Circus where they did a U-turn and went back on to Dalton Road.
“As I came back out to Dalton Road, I saw the offenders had left the vehicle and one came running at me before smashing my side window in with a hammer.”
Simon quickly drove off to Mahurangi East Road where he alerted the police.
When they arrived at the scene, the car, a silver Honda Odyssey, stolen from Red Beach at 9pm the previous day, was abandoned at Foster Crescent.
A stolen laptop was recovered from the vehicle, but 21 bottles of spirits taken from the liquor store were not found.
This marked the second ‘smash and grab’ at Gull Matakana in the past month. Three others occurred in 2016.
Owner Gay Smith says there is little more she can do to protect her store.
“After the incidents two years ago, I installed a $30,000 vending machine for the cigarettes, which is a lot more secure,” Gay says.
“The glass is toughened already, but I am looking at getting a smoke cannon that would fog the view of any intruders.”
Gay says she wouldn’t consider stopping the sale of cigarettes as she doesn’t believe they were the motive for the last two break-ins.
“My main concern is for the staff, but luckily every incident so far has been outside of working hours.”
She says the glass windows were not insured, as the $1000 excess for damage through a burglary makes it financially pointless.
