Senior Sergeant Joanne Porima, Waikato West Police:

Two men have been arrested and charged with offending relating to two burglaries in Huntly last night.

At around 11:15pm Police responded to Great South Road after reports of offenders breaking through glass with hammers into two service stations within minutes of each other.

In both cases, staff members were inside the stores and responded quickly to set off the fog canons which resulted in the offenders fleeing.

Huntly is a tight-knight community and there is no place for this offending.

Retail staff work extremely hard and don’t deserve to be put in a situation such as this.

If you decide to damage people’s property to illegally gain items that don’t belong to you, Police will work hard to respond, identify you and hold you to account.

This is a good example of Police’s dedication to holding offenders to account for crimes which not only damage our small businesses, but cause distress for our hard-working retail staff, who are members of this community.

Two men aged 18 and 22 are due to appear in Court in relation to the offending.

If you see illegal or suspicious activity, and it is happening now, contact Police on 111, if it is after fact you can call Police on 105 or go online to https://www.police.govt.nz/use-105

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