Alexander Marshall was working a shift at Burger King Invercargill last year, and said it was a "normal day at work" until a carload of people ordered frozen cokes.
"I gave them their drinks, they paid, and then as I turned my head to take the next order, they shot me," Mr Marshall, 26, said.
The gel-bullet hit him millimetres away from his eye.
"It was very, very scary.
"I was heavily in shock for probably about eight hours."
The blaster was "a bit like a paintball gun" but shot gel balls instead of paint, he said.
A gel-blaster is a legal item which fires water-filled gel-pallets.
A firearms licence is not required to own a gel-blaster in New Zealand but most retailers set an age restriction for buying them.
Mr Marshall said the physical pain was not as bad as the fear he felt.
"It didn’t really hurt but I was in shock, so I could definitely feel it on my face.
"I started yelling because I didn’t know what it was that shot me.
"I looked down at the table and it looked like bits of glass."
His assistant manager filed a police report and later that day Mr Marshall made a statement to police.
He discovered he was not the only one attacked in this way.
A police spokeswoman said two men were arrested after reports of a gel-blaster being shot at staff at two Invercargill food outlets in August last year.
The men admitted the offending and were dealt with through a restorative approach called Te Pae Oranga, which she said "holds people accountable while also helping them address problems they’re facing".
The process is an alternative to court and allows an offender to avoid a conviction for the crime by partaking in the programme.
In December, Mr Marshall received a hand-written apology from the perpetrator, along with a $30 Prezzy card.
"It felt like a buyout, like they were just kind of paying it to go away," Mr Marshall said.
"I wish more had been done."
The apology letter read "I’m sorry that we decided to do something very stupid and regret doing it".
"As a former customer-service worker I understand how this would have made you feel shocked and stressed, potentially already in a stressful environment."
Mr Marshall said it was hard to say whether or not the letter was sincere.
"I wasn’t really sure if he had written it or if it was ... just from a template."
He would have preferred an in-person meeting and apology.
Mr Marshall returned to work after the incident, but remained nervous.
"The moment I was at work, my hands were shaking ... [it] was quite stressful," he said.
In 2024, an American news outlet reported local police were concerned about malicious use of the blasters by youths, which may have been encouraged by social media challenges.
Gel-blasters
• Legal firearms that fire water-filled gel pallets.
• A firearms licence is not required to own a gel-blaster in New Zealand but most retailers set their own age restriction for purchasing them.
• The blasters, which come in an array of colourful designs, are sold online for as little as $20.
• They vary in style and power, with some firing up to 91.4m per second.
• One online seller of the gel-blasters said they could be used as a "less intense alternative to paintball" and said the gel projectiles were "practically harmless".
