Wellington police say robberies in the capital have spiked after appealing for public help with at least four incidents, three involving weapons, in the past two days.
On Monday, a barefoot man held up a Newlands dairy with a knife. After the dairy worker armed himself with a cricket stump, the robber fled with cigarettes. Today an Auckland couple was charged in relation to this robbery and other offences in the lower North Island.
Yesterday morning a hotel worker hopping out of a car to do the day's banking in Karori was punched in the head before two offenders stole an undisclosed amount of money. The pair are still on the run.
Then in the afternoon a man held up the Khandallah Post Shop with a gun. He also remains on the loose.
Finally, about 10.30pm last night, an 18-year-old man was violently assaulted and robbed by at least two men down a city centre alleyway.
Acting Wellington area commander Detective Inspector Soni Malaulautoday said there had been a spike in robberies, but that happened from time to time and was nothing to be too alarmed about.
"Wellington is a safe city, but from time to time we'll get this sort of thing happening. We want all Wellingtoninans to feel safe in the Wellington area.''
In the last finanical year there was less recorded crime in the area compared with the previous corresponding period, he said.
And there was no noticeable rise in the number of robberies involving weapons.
The daylight robbery in the quiet suburb of Khandallah has not worried shop owners, despite the Post Shop being robbed twice in little more than a year.
The owner of the business next door, Frank Jiang, said he was not worried about his safety and local butcher Ian Skachill joked no one would dare hold up his shop - because of the amount of knives out back.
- Hana Garrett-Walker and Matthew Backhouse
