Police investigating gun store burglary appeal for information

Waitematä Police investigating the burglary of a Wairau Valley gun store are
seeking information from members of the public who may have been in the area
at the time of the crime.

At around 10.17pm on Wednesday 9 October, three offenders broke into Wills
Fishing and Firearms on Wairau Road. They stole 21 shotguns and 12 handguns
and then fled.

The burglary was captured on CCTV and the footage shows the offenders were
well organised, which leads Police to believe the firearms were the target of
the burglary. They were heavily disguised, and identification of the
offenders from the footage will be unlikely.

"This burglary appears to have been well planned; the offenders were in the
shop for less than 2 minutes. It's obviously concerning to us that this
amount of firearms are now in the hands of criminals, we believe a vehicle
was used and we'd appeal to anyone who was in the area at the time to think
back and consider if they saw anything that appeared out of the ordinary or
suspicious, including vehicles" says Detective Inspector Greg Cramer,
Waitematä Police.

"We're working hard to identify the offenders, reviewing CCTV footage taken
from the neighbouring area at the time of the burglary and are analysing the
results of a forensic scene examination. We'd urge anyone who travelled
through the Wairau Road area last Wednesday night to really think hard about
whether they saw anything" says D.I. Cramer.

Investigators are reviewing files on known offenders and working to establish
whether the burglary is linked to a similar theft that took place at Gun City
in central Auckland, in July.

Security at the store will also be reviewed over the course of the
investigation.

ENDS

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