A Christchurch mall worker has been left unnerved after witnessing a group of people trying to smash their way into The Warehouse with golf clubs and hammers this morning.
The man, who did not want to be named, was working near The Warehouse in Barrington Shopping Centre when he saw two cars pull into the car park about 6am.
“It looked like early customers which is nothing unusual... they parked just out the front of The Warehouse then backed up, which sort of made us stop and look and go ‘that’s really strange at this hour to have two cars parked parallel backed up’,” he told The New Zealand Herald.
About seven people jumped out of the cars and began taking items from the boots before rushing forward and “smashing the s*** out of the front door of The Warehouse”.
“[They were] trying to smash the front doors of The Warehouse using what looked like hammers and golf clubs. They made a few holes and they were kicking the absolute crap out of the doors.”
The store’s alarms activated but the witness said the group appeared unfazed.
“Even one of the real short ones that looked like a real young kid was in there swinging like crazy.”
Eventually the group “obviously decided they weren’t going to get in” and turned away.
However, one of the group turned towards the shop the man was working in and appeared to raise a weapon briefly in his direction before heading back to the waiting cars.
“It was a little bit nerve-wracking. I didn’t know if they were adjusting their face covering or if they were threatening a weapon or what they were doing. I was hoping they weren’t going to come in to us.”
The man said his business opens at 6am and the incident now has him wondering whether they should be open at that time.
“What do we do? Do we lock ourselves in, do we not have customers, do we have to arm ourselves? There’s so much running through your mind.”
One of the group even appeared to be filming the attack, he said.
The incident has left him worried about what might happen tonight - whether the attack was random or if they were going to come back and try again, or try to “retaliate” against the man and his co-workers for witnessing it.
“You’ve seen it on the news for so long, you know it’s around, but it really hits home when you see it first-hand and know that they’re probably going to get away with it.”
The man said police were “amazing” and showed up “super quick”.
“They were there within a couple of minutes.”
Police and The Warehouse have been contacted for comment.
