A Peaches and Cream Hamilton employee was severely injured after attempting to stop a shoplifter this past week. The victim tells NZ Herald that the thief rammed their car into her.
If you have ever waited for bus C1 and C2 from Centre Place, you would know where Peaches and Cream is. It’s right opposite the Transport Centre. The location of this store is the concern. It is located in a busy area and yet someone successfully stole and injured the worker.
The employee, Alicia Moke, stated that theft has significantly increased during the six years she has worked at the store. The prevalence of crime is on the rise, from dairy to retail.
Earlier this year, citizens of Aotearoa read the headlines of the gruesome murder of a dairy worker, Janak Patel in Auckland. That case brought a lot of attention to crimes related to dairies and the lack of laws protecting the innocents in the industry. Despite the MP’s assurance to take strict measures against the growing crime, it continues, now in a manner that has resulted in a retail worker being traumatised .
Moke clarified that she had jumped on to the bonnet of the alleged thief’s car. The victim adds, detailing, “she just flat-foot accelerated into me from about two metres away, hit me on to the bonnet [and] slammed the brakes on. I flew off into the middle of the road.”
According to an eyewitness, Moke had tumbled off the car and hit her head. From the extent of the collision, Moke experienced a concussion, and her face was still swollen a day later. Moke believes the thief had purposely hit her with her car for just “$150 worth of lingerie.”
The lingerie cost Moke a visit to the hospital with cuts, scrapes, and a sore shoulder. Though she was discharged shortly after and took a day off, she is concerned about her safety. She tells the newspaper, “I have concerns for my safety going to work every day,” suggesting that this is nothing new for a retail worker. In her six years of employment at the store, Moke has had customers threatened to “punch” her when asked to pay. “I get threatened on an almost daily basis,” she claimed.
Like many thieves who target the same store, this one was no new. Moke said she recognised the woman [thieve] when she walked into the store. The retail employee added she had a suspicion that the shoplifted had targeted the shop before. As most retail workers are asked to react quickly, Moke approached the woman when she sensed something was amiss. When the thief was getting close to the exit, “I was about to go, to try to get the items off her before she left the store, she made a run for it.”
This is when the shoplifting escalated to causing physical injuries. Moke recounted the details of the day, sharing how it unfolded. Following the woman out, Moke tried to film and capture the face of the woman, including the registration number of the car to report to the police. This is when the altercation took place, resulting in Moke’s injuries. There has been no further updates on the case as of now.
