Inside ram raids: Why NZ teens are crashing cars into shops

By Anna Harcourt and Tom Levesque

“We need to understand, a lot of our kids didn't just wake up and say, ‘I want to go rob a store somewhere’. So there's so many complex layers that we have to understand before we start trying to figure out what's wrong.”

Over the last few months, it seems like a new crime wave has emerged in New Zealand: ram raids, where people drive cars into shops to bust them open and steal the goods inside.

Last year there were around five a week across the country - and the crazy thing is, it’s mostly teenagers.

Police say nearly 90% of ram raid offenders are under the age of 20, and the majority are under 17.

If you’ve been part of a ram raid and you want to be interviewed by Re:, get in touch with the journalist anna@renews.co.nz

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Inside ram raids: Why NZ teens are crashing cars into shops

Nearly 90% of ram raid offenders are under the age of 20, with the majority under 17.