A Hamilton business owner frustrated with his store getting burgled and his staff threatened, has taken matters into his own hands, chasing suspected thieves from his store before any crime was committed.
Several weeks ago, Harry Luther had just left his superette in the suburb of Glenview when he noticed two cars heading back towards his business.
"All I could see is their faces covered in balaclavas," he said.
His store is the only one in the vicinity, and had been robbed several times before. He was sure the group was heading there.
"I had an instant reaction," he said. "I did a U-turn without even thinking about it."
He gave chase, honking his horn to let them know he was behind them.
"Probably the whole neighbourhood heard it."
Luther also rang his staff to get them to close the store while his wife dialled 111.
"I said that's it, I'm going to go behind them and I'm not going to stop until the police arrest these people."
One of the two cars soon ran into a fence, with the occupant fleeing to join the other vehicle.
Luther stayed in pursuit of the car as far as Waikato Hospital, with his wife staying on the line with police the whole time.
At that point police cars took over the pursuit, which ended in the north of the city near The Base shopping precinct in Te Rapa.
After running over road spikes, the car crashed into a power pole, with all four occupants being taken into custody.
Two of them have since appeared in Youth Court charged with unlawfully taking a vehicle and other driving offences.
Luther says he and his wife were overjoyed at the outcome.
"We were just screaming with joy, like we had just won the Lotto," he said.
He said while he was aware of the dangers involved, "we are at the point where I feel we need to do something to protect my business, because we have been sitting here, getting hit by these people".
1News also spoke to customers who supported his decision to defend the store.
Luther has featured twice on 1News over the last 18 months, when his businesses have been targeted by robbers.
Staff previously described being threatened with a knife, and talked of having panic attacks in the aftermath of the robberies.
Luther has spent around $30,000 to upgrade security in his shops. He has wanted to sell, but has said that the crime wave means there have been no takers.
It comes after Waikato Police set up Operation Pryor, a dedicated unit to tackle youth crime.
The unit has so far made 368 arrests from the beginning of February to the end of November.
Police say in many instances, individuals were arrested more than once and charged with a number of offences.
They say most offenders were between 14 and 17 years old, and most offences dealt with burglary.
There were more than 4200 illegal takings of vehicles, the great majority of them in Hamilton, police said.
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