Video: Dairy owner resists armed robber with baseball bat
A shopkeeper in her 60s brandished a baseball bat to fight off a would-be robber who threatened her with what appeared to be a rifle.
Daksha Patel was behind the till when the armed offender entered her Kiwi Street Foodmarket in Hastings just before 11.30am this morning.
With nothing but her own strength and a baseball bat, she refused to yield to the gunman's demands, as he came behind the counter and advanced towards her.
The ordeal lasted about two minutes before the offender ran off with nothing.
Daksha's 18-year-old son Rohan Patel and her husband, were in town when it happened.
Rohan told Hawke's Bay App he was "freaking out" and just wanted his mum to be "alright" when she called immediately after the incident.
"My mum called us as soon as it happened and we came rushing home from town," he said just hours after the incident.
CCTV footage shows an armed offender at Kiwi Street Foodmarket on Kiwi St.
The incident sent several Hastings schools and Hawke's Bay Hospital into lockdown, and police are yet to find the offender.
Rohan says the offender pointed what appeared to be a gun the length of his arm at his mum. "It was really big and he was just demanding money and cigarettes."
They believe the offender was in his mid-late 20s, and possibly a local, but are not sure.
"He was fully covered. You couldn't see anything apart from his eyes and his body was fully covered as well."
Due to a language barrier, he says they waited until they arrived back at the store to call the police. "My mum's English is not that good so she had no idea what to say or anything like that".
He says his mum is "coping" and "alright" following the incident. They are thankful she was not hurt, and nothing was taken.
"The guy put a little dent into the fridge but nothing else."
His parents, originally from India, have owned the dairy on Kiwi St, Camberley for the past 17-years. It is the first time anything like this has happened before.
"We are frustrated and shocked at this happening to us. This stuff shouldn't be happening." He says they want to know how the offender got access to a firearm.
"We hope police find out who he is and catch him and if they don't catch him, we hope they at least find the firearm so they can get it off the street," he said.
However, despite what happened, they have remained open.
"The community has been so helpful in every single way and so we think it is right to keep it open."
Since the incident this morning, he says they have had customers come in and check on how they were doing.
