A man living in rural Waikato feels unsafe in his own home after four men stole his car to use in a dairy robbery and threatened to kill him.
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Newshub he fell asleep last Thursday watching TV but was woken up by his dog barking at 1:30am.
He said he noticed his car lights were on and instinctively went outside to make sure everything was okay, assuming it was just kids messing around.
Instead, he was confronted by four men wearing masks and brandishing hammers.
"I had heard stories about teenagers stealing cars and I ran out there thinking it would be kids to chase them away," he said.
"I smacked on the window and opened the driver's door and I said, 'Get the f**k out of my car' and then all the doors opened and four guys got out in hoods and masks and they had hammers and they just started swinging their hammers at me and saying, 'You dumb c**t, you're going to die'.
"I just backed away and sort of ran off down my driveway and for some reason they didn't attack me. Then they got in the car and drove off."
He said the brazen robbery was particularly terrifying because his car was parked up his drive near his house.
The man said the car was used to rob a dairy overnight and his valuables that had been inside, including a laptop and golf clubs, were dumped.
"They found my car the next day and it had been used for robbing dairies and petrol stations and stuff.
"I had a whole bunch of stuff in the car so my work laptop was in there which got found in a paddock by a farmer so they obviously weren't doing it for financial reasons. I think they were just doing it for fun," he told Newshub.
While he has insurance, the man said he wants to warn people not to intervene if something like this happens to them.
"My message is pretty much don't try to stop them…I think if I had touched them they would have just smashed the s**t out of me."
The man said the robbery was so violent and unsettling he's not comfortable leaving his partner alone at home anymore.
"I feel very unsafe. I was supposed to be going away this weekend for my grandad's burial but I don't really want to leave my partner here by herself so I am not going to go which is a bit s**t."
A police spokesperson told Newshub an investigation is ongoing.
"The victim interrupted four males attempting to take the vehicle, who then confronted him with weapons. The victim backed off and the vehicle was taken.
"The vehicle was located that afternoon in Waharoa and a forensic examination was completed. Police are following lines of enquiry and the investigation is ongoing," they said.
The spokesperson said police believe the stolen car was used in a burglary on Hillcrest Street, Tirau around 6am on Tuesday.
It comes as a spike in ram-raid style robberies is gripping the country.
Overnight on Monday police arrested three people after several break-ins and ram-raids across Auckland.
The robberies come after a spike in similar crimes, including thieves smashing their way into an Auckland dairy in Penrose on Friday morning.
A store in Mount Roskill and a gas station in Titirangi were also targeted on Tuesday, last week. And on the same night, the Mairangi Bay Dairy was also hit, with thieves stealing cash and vapes. Meanwhile down the country in Christchurch, a Thirsty Liquor storefront was completely smashed.
Last month a group of thieves used three cars to smash through the doors at Ormiston Shopping Centre in South Auckland, before making off with electronics from Noel Leeming.
Minister of Police Poto Williams says the police and the Ministry of Social Development are working on a plan to address youths involved in gang activity.
Police said they are working hard to solve the problem but the community has a role to play as well.
"When we've got 11-year-olds out in the middle of the night driving stolen cars and crashing into retail stores, there is a bigger problem out there," detective inspector Karen Bright told AM last week.
"There is a part that other people can play including social media, parents, the wider community, keeping these kids in school and people who are receiving these stolen goods. There's a lot of things that can be done and it's not just a police issue to solve."
