Numerous robberies and break-ins continue to plague small and medium business owners all over the country.
The latest to have experienced the trauma is Christchurch's renowned community figure and business owner Hitesh Sharma. Sharma is the owner of Maia Foods, a popular Indian grocery retailer and wholesaler at Cashel Street in Christchurch.
In the early hours of July 7, three intruders broke the window and entered the shop. At the time, Hitesh was away in Wellington. His wife and store manager rushed to the store. When police were summoned, they went to the scene and told they would return the next morning to collect fingerprints. Sharma has been waiting for about two days now, but at the time of writing this story, no one from the police has visited the store to obtain fingerprints or conduct any additional investigation.
While there was nothing much that could be stolen as the store does not sell cigarettes or alcohol, such incidents cause stress, repair costs and the harassment of going through Insurance.
Hitesh told Indian Weekender, "There have been incidents of break-ins earlier also in my store, but I chose not to make too much noise, but this time I felt completely let down by the police's inaction and decided to put it on my social media.
Sharma shared on a social media post, "It's heart-breaking to see our hard work put into ruins by a bunch of thieves! The most devastating part, break-ins at our store were done by same bunch of people three times in last six weeks, third time was last night!"
He expresses his disappointment with the police, "Even after three official complaints no action has been taken so far. We were promised that there will be someone arriving this morning to take fingerprints, but as usual, no one showed up. With time, those fingerprints will fade away!"
It is regrettable that reports of break-ins and ram-raids have become so frequent and common in recent years that the community no longer feel outraged by the news but such incidents continue to cause unnecessary stress, anxiety and financial loss for the business owners who have to deal with these dreadful situations.
Sharma further mentions that despite the fact that the perpetrators' faces, some of whom are small children, are visible in the CCTV video clips, police are not making sufficient efforts to identify them or carry out further investigation.
Sharma's views are shared by other business owners who have experienced similar trauma and find police actions lacking. They strongly believe that police's lack of action encourages and emboldens criminals.
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