The owner of a Frankton liquor store has described seeing four youths “grabbing whatever they could” as CCTV footage captured a car slam into the store’s entrance in a ram raid. Queenstown police said yesterday officers had arrested three youths following the ram-raid of the Big Barrel bottle shop in Remarkables Park early on Tuesday. Owner Ranbir Singh said the store’s CCTV footage showed a Mazda vehicle being driven into its entrance at “full speed”. Mr Singh said four males, who looked like older teenagers, then spent about two minutes “grabbing whatever they could” before leaving. He estimated the value of the stock taken, and damage to the building, at “quite a few thousand dollars”. “They damaged quite a bit more stock than they took,” he said. The store’s security system alerted security immediately and Mr Singh said he understood bystanders witnessed the incident and called the police. He was thrilled some of those allegedly responsible had been nabbed. Detective Senior Sergeant Steven Salton said the offenders targeted cash and alcohol before leaving in two vehicles. Police later found one of the vehicles, which was taken away for forensic examination. “After initial inquiries, police identified and located three youths,” Det Snr Sgt Salton said in a statement. “An investigation into the matter is ongoing as police work to identify and locate the remaining offenders.” The trio will appear in youth court in Queenstown at a later date. It was the second ram-raid in Queenstown in the past eight months after a Super Liquor store located only 100m away from Big Barrel was hit by youths last November. Mr Singh, who is also the owner of liquor stores in Nelson and Christchurch, said there had been fewer ram-raids around the country in the past few years, so he was surprised Queenstown had experienced two in eight months. Incidents like this could “dent” the resort’s reputation, he said. “People are flying from all over the world to come to Queenstown and then these things happen. “New Zealand is supposed to be one of the safest countries.” If an innocent person got hurt, it would be hugely damaging to Queenstown’s global reputation, he said. He praised Remarkables Park’s management for getting the damage repaired quickly, allowing the store to reopen within a few hours of the incident. guy.williams@odt.co.nz
