Gunman Threatens Bank Customers

Teamster / March 23, 2010

Armed robberies are continuing apace in New Zealand with yet another armed hold up in a bank. This must be the fastest growing occupation right now.

At 2.12pm yesterday frightened customers and staff at the ASB Bank in Grey Lynn, Auckland were ordered to drop to the floor by a masked gunman, whilst another climbed over a security screen and threatened a bank worker. The two escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash. The Herald said

“Police said one of the men was of medium build, possibly European, about 1.83m tall and wearing dark glasses and a blue and white hooded jacket.

The other man was a dark-skinned Maori or Polynesian, of stocky build. He was about 1.78m tall and wearing a light blue hooded track top.”

The people cowering in the photo look absolutely terrified, the poor gentleman in the middle can’t even kneel down properly. People have a right to go about their normal daily business without fearing for their lives. We’ve been doing this blog for some time now and have seen most things but images like these still shock and dismay us.

New Zealand often markets itself as being a safe country with a low crime rate, the reality is very different.

For details of other armed hold ups see: Armed Robberies

For facts and stats about crime see: NZ Facts and Stats

One thought on “Gunman Threatens Bank Customers”

E2NZ says:

January 15, 2014 at 5:45 pm

A few years ago we were cataloging armed robberies in New Zealand. We stopped when police began restricting crime reporting to the media (Gisborne made a brave last stand: ‘Gizgate’). At that time robberies were taking place at a rate of one a day. After that reports dropped off dramatically. In March 2010 a BNZ press release stated that armed robberies in New Zealand had reached an historic level.

In 2008 there were a total of 1,160 recorded aggravated robberies, of which 163 were firearm related and 223 used a stabbing or cutting weapon (source NZ statistics) which means that thousands of innocent members of the public and people at work have been affected by armed robberies in NZ, that’s appalling for a country that markets itself as having a low crime rate.

Since then media reporting of armed robberies has been very low key, no doubt in an effort to prevent copy cats. Yet these crimes are still going on.

People also feel safer if they don’t know about them. Of course, the poor bank tellers go through the trauma of being unprotected during robberies but are expected to smile bravely through. However, you will notice that more and more banks in New Zealand operate behind locked doors which are opened by the tellers, and notices with admittance requirements are prominently displayed.