By Emily Norman and Hayley Gastmeier
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A car smashed through the entrance of a Carterton shop in what police are saying was a well thought out “ram raid” early yesterday morning.
Security guards monitoring Keinzley Agvet on High St were alerted to the incident and notified police at 3.25am yesterday.
Two cars were involved in the ram raid, with one of them being left at the scene and the other being used as a getaway vehicle.
One of the vehicles had been stolen.
Police said the getaway vehicle, a dark blue station wagon, had been stolen earlier in the weekend, and believe the same vehicle was later involved in a police pursuit.
Keinzley Veterinarian Solutions owner Phil Keinzley said in his 25 years in business, this was the first time he had been targeted in such a manner.
Metal bollards were installed at the shop frontage for protection “against this sort of thing”, he said.
“But they’ve just gone between them and straight through the front door.”
Despite about “$20,000 worth of damage” to the building, the store was open for business yesterday.
It appeared that clothing had been the only items stolen, but Mr Keinzley could not be sure until a stocktake had been carried out.
He has handed over CCTV footage to police for their investigation.
An officer at the scene yesterday morning said the ram car, a grey Nissan Primera, had “just driven straight through the doors… and by the look of it, it’s been pretty well thought out”.
The ram vehicle was removed from the scene.
“It looks like they’ve targeted high end jackets and clothing,” the officer said.
“From what I can see they’re like the stockman type jackets, they’re quite expensive stuff.
“They’ve obviously planned it out — you don’t do this sort of thing randomly.”
Senior Sergeant Mike Sutton said there was a “group of possibly four offenders” who had entered Keinzley Agvet after their vehicle had rammed the entrance.
“They left in a second vehicle, a dark blue station wagon.”
He said at 4.40am, while in patrol in Masterton, police had seen a similar vehicle and had engaged in a “very brief pursuit”.
“We lost the vehicle at the end of River Rd and it was found under the Colombo Rd bridge.”
Its occupants had fled.
