Yesterday police visited some dairies to provide owners with crime prevention advice following two aggravated robberies targeting synthetic cannabis and cash in as many weeks.
That advice included having adequate CCTV, increasing staff numbers at night, employing security guards, reviewing hours of opening and asking shop owners to remove synthetic cannabis from their shelves.
Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan, of Dunedin, said the visits revealed four retailers of synthetic cannabis products had taken to ''arming themselves with weapons''.
These included a machete, lengths of wood and a mallet. They
had been removed and the dairy owners formally warned.
''If [the dairy owners] are so concerned about this product, then take it off the shelves,'' he said.
The machete was behind the counter beside a box of synthetic cannabis ''so it could be used at any time''.
''All of the outlets spoken to said they had them there for their own protection.''
A dairy owner, a victim of a recent aggravated robbery, sold synthetic cannabis to a person while police were speaking to him about the danger of selling the product, Snr Sgt McLellan said.
By arming themselves, dairy owners were endangering lives, including their own, staff, members of the public and emergency services who came to assist.
''We could find ourselves in a hostage-type situation.''
Police confirmed there had been seven aggravated robberies targeting synthetic cannabis in the Southern district during the past two years.
Most were in the Dunedin area, including the Willowbank and Balmoral Dairies in the past fortnight.
Only the Willowbank Dairy case remains unresolved, after a 26-year-old man handed himself in to police yesterday in connection with the aggravated robbery of the Balmoral Dairy.
The owner of the South Dunedin shop, who declined to be named, said he had a camera system installed but maintained he did not arm himself.
During his five years in the Hillside Rd store it been targeted in two aggravated robberies but it was money, not synthetic cannabis, that people wanted.
Snr Sgt McLellan said the number of retailers selling synthetic cannabis had reduced to nine following media publicity last year, but this had increased to around 20 in recent months.
