A Rotorua liquor store has suffered around $60,000 worth of damages after masked thieves ram-raided the Westbrook Liquor Centre just for a couple of boxes of Woodstock.
The owner of the store Ranjit Singh, who lives in Tauranga was awoken at 3:30am by a call from his security company after a vehicle believed to be a Toyota Aqua started ramming in the backdoors of his store.
Singh could not do much but simply watch on his security cameras as thieves pillaged the store then drove off as police arrived.
Police arrived shortly after being called but decided not to pursue the thieves for safety purposes.
The thieves only loaded a few boxes into their getaway vehicle before police arrived dropping some as they scrabbled to the car.
Singh said that the thieves caused $60,000 worth of damage in less than 8 minutes.
“There were nearly 200 boxes of beers that I put in the bin today,” Singh said, as he cleaned up the damage on Tuesday.
Singh estimated the thieves got away with only $1000 worth of stock.
“They only took a couple of bloody Woodstocks, that’s all.”
The damaged property and his scared staff caused the business owner the most concern. The liquor store is connected to the Westbrook Tavern, which he also owned; the bar and liquor store would be closed at least until Thursday while repairs were made.
However, Singh said all the repairs would take up to nearly three weeks to complete.
Photo Credit: SunLive
