Locals in Stokes Valley are on edge after a man intimidating people with a knife at a shopping centre was taken away by police, only to return hours later and allegedly steal another knife from one of the stores.
Huck Haeata was shopping at Scott Court Shopping Centre in Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt on Saturday when he noticed something "off" about a man.
"It just looked outta place, not the norm… I had never seen him before," Haeata said, describing the man staring intensely at a real estate sign.
Haeata was ordering pizza and getting some groceries at the time.
"Then back to wait inside Dominos. Usually I wait outside but I'm just on edge due to Sydney attack etc and I just decided to wait inside. It was also really busy, so waited till about 6pm for my pizza," he said.
His uneasy feeling about the strange man was backed up when he got home later that evening and saw posts on social media.
Earlier in the day, a man was seen walking around with what was believed to be a knife. Several people warned the community about the man on a local Facebook group, screenshots obtained by Newshub reveal.
"At about 12:30pm today a guy was caught outside my shop carrying a knife. The cops were informed and he was arrested, handcuffed and taken away. Now just after three hours he is back here walking around," one shop owner posted.
Newshub contacted the shop owner, who didn't want to be named, who said Stokes Valley had become "unpredictable" with crime. He called for a better police presence in the area.
In another post, another shop owner said the man grabbed a kitchen knife and left without paying. They said they'd contacted police about this.
A police spokesperson confirmed to Newshub that a man was arrested on Scott Court around 1:15pm on Saturday following reports of him carrying what was believed to be a knife.
"Police responded and seized the knife," the spokesperson said.
"The man was released on bail later that day. Police then received a report of a man stealing a bottle of alcohol from a store on Oates Street, Stokes Valley around 6:30pm.
"Police responded a short time later where he was arrested and charged with breaching bail and trespassed from the store."
The 25-year-old is due to appear in the Hutt Valley District Court on Thursday, charged with possessing an offensive weapon.
Police said further charges were being considered.
Screenshots, seen by Newshub, show family of the man apologising for his behaviour on the Facebook posts. A woman, who says she is his sister, claimed he had mental health issues and that they would follow up with his care providers.
However, Haeata remains concerned about crime in the area.
"If I was a police officer, I'd take this seriously," he said.
Taking matters into his own hands, Haeata said he was organising a Stokes Valley Business Association.
So far, he's held three public meetings to address what he described as "rising youth crime".
"What motivated me was hearing what [one shop owner] and his family at his store were going through," he said, describing harassment.
"I'm extremely busy too but someone had to do something."
