Small business owners have been warned by the police and the Police Minister to not take the law into their own hands, amid a current spike in crime on small businesses.
Thakor Gopal runs a dairy in the Wellington region, and last week a 19-year-old woman came into his store demanding cash from the register.
"She said to me, 'give me the money, give me the money,'" Gopal said.
Gopal called out for help, and two members of the public came to the rescue, with a police officer arriving at the scene shortly afterwards.
No one was hurt, but Gopal remains shaken from the incident.
"If somebody's going to kill me, then my life is gone, what about my wife, what about my kids?" he said.
On Monday, the Government announced a multimillion-dollar package aimed at preventing retail crime.
Earlier this week, 1News spoke to many small businesses. Many were too afraid to speak on camera, but the ones who did showed us hockey sticks and metal poles that they keep behind the counter for protection.
"I'd be really, really concerned if an owner or an operator of a small superette or dairy was the one that was facing a court charge because they'd used a weapon in a way that they shouldn't have done," police's prevention manager community focus Inspector Brent Register said.
Police Minister Chris Hipkins told 1News that business owners shouldn't take the law into their own hands because they'd be more likely to get hurt.
"I do understand the anxiety of small business owners, it's not okay that they're in this position, the Government is absolutely backing the police to make sure that they are following up on each and every incident that these small businesses are facing," Hipkins said.
National's crime spokesperson Mark Mitchell said it's highly concerning that business owners feel the need to arm themselves with weapons.
"Labour has announced a couple of band-aid solutions that won't stop offenders from believing they can operate with impunity," Mitchell said.
"The problem is there's about 14,500 small businesses in New Zealand and to protect every one with a fund would be a huge amount of money," Register said.
The Sandringham Business Association’s Mark Scherer said the shopkeepers are "really disappointed" it has "come to this level of violence", adding that it was "a situation that we could see happening, that we could see coming".
"When it finally did come, it’s been absolutely devastating for the community."
It comes as 80 businesses throughout the Canterbury region have signed a letter coordinated by the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce, requesting an urgent response from the Government.
"We do know from hearing from some of our members that they have got staff who are frightened, you know they're intimidated, they're scared to come to work, and ... the businesses are doing all that they can to keep them safe," chief executive Leeann Watson said.
According to police, there is currently a spike in crime on small retail businesses, similar to a crime wave experienced in New Zealand about six years ago.
Register explained to 1News that when young people are involved, it makes stopping that crime very complex.
"Some of these children, they don't have shoes to go to school, they go to school to eat lunch because that's the only place they're getting food, one or more of their caregivers is already in jail, they don't have role models, and they've fallen out of the education system," Register said.
Simon Judd has many years of experience dealing with youth offenders and believes locking them up isn't the answer.
"It increases the chance that they are going to be, to go on a pathway towards a criminal way of life, and so that really needs to be avoided at all costs."
As for dairy owners like Gopal, he just wants to feel safe.
"I don't want to take the law into my [own] hands, but the Government should do something about it," he said.
"The safety of the owners and operators of the small retail stores, that's the biggest concern for us, it's their safety," Register added.
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