Shop owner and staff confront alleged shoplifter with a bat in NZ

Fruit shop staff were forced to defend themselves with a cricket bat from an alleged shoplifter who turned violent when they confronted him.
The 'young, solid and very strong' man allegedly left Vege King in Hamilton, New Zealand about 9.30am on Tuesday without paying for a pack of corned beef.
Owner of 20 years Harjit Singh said he and his staff followed him outside and politely asked him to empty his pockets but he instead pushed one of them.
'They were saying 'give us the stuff and walk away, we won't say anything'. The guy started to punch my staff on the face and my staff, we tried to stop him,' he told the New Zealand Herald.
'First we asked nicely, but then we've got no option but for self-defence. If they harm my staff, I won't sit back and do nothing.'
Workers armed themselves with cricket bats and video shot from across the road showed one of them swinging a bat and the man several times.
A group of about eight people were seen milling around between parked cars next to busy Heaphy Terrace before the large man emerged.
Dressed in a black windcheater and jeans, he took up a fighting stance and bounced around as he dodged strikes from the bat and threw punches.
'About eight of nine of them cleared him out and about three of them were whacking him with sticks. He took a few whacks to the head before I pulled out the camera,' Levi Morgan, who took the video, said.
The man eventually dropped the corned beef and casually walked away across the road while calling out to the group of staff.
Mr Singh said the alleged shoplifter wasn't hurt and his staff only suffered a black eye and a grazed knee.
Customers called police who arrived after the altercation was over. No one was arrested and investigations were ongoing, Hamilton police said.