Cigarette-craving ram raiders left Whakatāne’s Town Centre Dairy disappointed last week.

Two masked offenders drove through the side window of the Boon Street dairy in the early hours of Friday morning, seeking cigarettes.

Police, who are investigating the incident, say the car had been earlier stolen from the Whakatāne Hospital carpark.

The cigarette cabinet was locked and, unable to open it, the perpetrators ran away empty-handed when the fog canon deployed.

The 3am incident was recorded on the dairy’s CCTV cameras.

Co-owners Neil North and Julie Perez said this was the first time they had been targeted by ram raiders, and they intended to upgrade their security and extend their CCTV coverage as a result.

“They couldn’t get into the cigarette cabinet, nothing was taken,” Mr North said. “They made a hell of a mess though, there was glass everywhere.”

There was torrential rain on Friday, but he said, luckily, it was angled away from the broken window.

“Fortunately, we didn’t have to close, we could keep trading,” he said. “But a lot of customers were curious about the smashed window.”

Mr North said Glenn’s Glass did an “absolutely marvellous job” of repairing the window on Friday.

“They dropped all their other jobs, came in, and took out the existing panels. It’s big, thick glass as well. While they were doing that, new panels were being made in Tauranga.

“They sent a guy out to pick up the new glass and had it all installed by 5pm that same Friday.

“It was absolutely extraordinary. A lot of other businesses have had plywood in the windows for a few days after this sort of thing,” he said.

Whakatāne Police are investigating the incident.