By Kim Choe
Auckland police are hunting for a thief, or thieves, with a habit of shopping after hours.
Shops in two different malls have been broken into in the past few weeks and police believe they may have access to some keys.
One brazen shoplifter operates after-hours, somehow managing to stay in the mall after it has closed.
He has targeted the Westfield Manukau mall twice, stealing cash and goods from three stores.
Police are still working out how he got into the shops, but believe he had keys for at least one of them.
It is thought he or his associates could be targeting more than one shopping centre; a man has also committed similar after-hours burglaries at another Auckland mall.
Westfield management is standing by its security and says it is not possible the thief has access to a master set of keys because there is not one. Individual retailers are the only ones who can access their stores.
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