Hold-up guidelines for dairies

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 6

Hold-up guidelines for dairies

PA Auckland Dairy owners are due to receive from their national body this week guidelines on how to deal with armed hold-ups. The secretary of the Dairy Confectionery Mixed Business Association, Mr Bruce Woodley, said advice had been compiled with the help of police crime-prevention officers. Mr Woodley said the emphasis was on safety for the dairy owner. “Dairy owners have to know how to handle these people (armed robbers) so that at the worst they lose money rather than something else more valuable.” He predicts dairy owners are likely to arm themselves with weapons in reaction to what he termed the rising wave of aggravated robberies ,pf

small businesses. Mr Woodley said some dairy owners had cricket bats or pieces of wood in their shops in case of attack. He predicted more sophisticated weapons might be used by dairy owners to defend themselves if robberies continued to increase. Three armed robberies and an attempt were made on Friday night, while two robberies occurred on Saturday night. Police believe Saturday night’s robberies were committed by the same man. They said a man with a pistol took $9OO from an Otahuhu dairy. An hour later a man of similar description escaped with about $3OO from a Mount Albert hamburger bar. Police said nobody was hurt in either incident.