A Green Bay Dairy, owned by the Khan family, has been targeted for three burglaries in 36 hours.
The Khan family moved to New Zealand in 2019, with the primary concern of moving countries to ensure the safety of their children.
Aatif Khan revealed that thefts cost the business around NZ$32,000 during the spree, and lost more than NZ$50,000 worth of stock, an amount which he has decided to match in donations to the same charities that have helped him when he and his family come to New Zealand.
Khan continued he would be out of pocket a further NZ$130,000, leaving the business due to how unsafe running the business had become. The family's children, aged 9, 8 and 6, were sleeping right next door as the three thefts occurred. The family's home is adjoined to the dairy, with only a door to separate the two, which poses a terrifying prospect for the family with potentially armed thieves breaking into the store.
Khan had said that leaving the business was an easy decision to protect the safety and well-being of his family, as this is and will remain the family's primary concern.
The first theft happened on midday Sunday, where the thief stole food; the second occurred twelve hours later, where two men used a hammer against the glass door and stole from the cash register, and it was targeted again on Tuesday night when four people broke through the newly-replaced glass to steal cartons of cigarettes.
These incidents terrified the Khan family, causing the children to be too fearful to even stay in their own homes, especially following the attempt of burglars to break through the family home's back door.
Khan shared that when the police arrived, he had been informed that the dairy for which he took over the operation was known as the unsafest dairy in Auckaldn, something which he said he had never been made privy to before taking over the tenancy of the home and business. Khan requests that his landlord cancel his lease on the building and refund his bond, particularly given that the landlord had not informed him of the previous break-ins.
The store had been shortlisted when Khan took over for the Retail Crime Prevention Programme and The Fog Cannon Subsidy Scheme. While his dairy was fitted with alarms and fog cannons, in both burglaries, the fog cannons failed to deter robbers, taking an extended amount of time to activate as goods were stolen.
The police are continuing to investigate the burglaries.
