Youth gangs around the country have started a disturbing trend of taking to social media to brag about their violent crimes that include ram raids and robberies.
Security footage of robberies, news articles and photos of crimes around New Zealand have been posted to Facebook and YouTube by youth gangs claiming to have been responsible for them.
Stuff reports that one gang, We Strait Aych (WSH), is understood to have robbed a Christchurch Night 'n Day store repeatedly over a six month period.
In these robberies the staff were threatened with a variety of weapons including pistols, knives and machetes. The youths are targeting cigarettes in the robberies and 15 people have already been arrested in connection with them.
Video posted to YouTube last September under the WSH label shows mounds of cigarettes and youths posing with money allegedly obtained in robberies.
Similar videos have also been posted by other youth gangs in New Zealand on YouTube, including one from Teamoneyaffendersz that shows security footage of a Stirling Sports store in Waikato being ram raided.
The channel then posted another video of sporting goods in the back of a vehicle that appear to be from the robbery.
Police told Stuff they are appalled with the new trend of online boasting by Kiwi youth gangs.
"The footage is disgraceful and we've got to look at the people who are actually working in these dairies, they've got families they want to go home to safely and they shouldn't be subjected to any of this behaviour.
"For people to actually go online and brag about it is disgraceful," Canterbury police area prevention manager acting Inspector Paul Reeves said.
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