CLICK & COLLECT FOR DRUGS
The sun was still up when Scott* parked his Subaru Legacy on Onslow Road in the leafy Wellington suburb of Khandallah. Sitting outside a boxy set of flats overlooking the harbour, the 20-year-old student messaged the man he was meant to meet. He was late to a friend’s 21st; he planned his apology while he waited.
The man slipped out of the flats and into Scott’s car. They hadn’t spoken in person before. After some stilted banter, he showed Scott a large Ziploc bag packed with loose crystals of MDMA. The bag’s size didn’t surprise Scott: he had come prepared for a big deal. The dealer asked to see Scott’s cash, prompting him to pull out a wad of notes totalling $4,500 — a fair price at the time, in 2020. That’s when things started to go wrong.
“Oh, is this all of it?” the dealer said, according to Scott. “And I was like, ‘Yeah bro, I’ve counted it twice. I’ve sent you a photo of the money already, it’s all good.’ And he said, ‘Oh cool, I’m taking it then.’”
The dealer punched Scott in the head multiple times, got out of the car and sprinted down the road with the money and the drugs to a beat-up Honda Civic. His head pounding, Scott ran after him. A week before he’d been scammed on the same street by a different dealer. He’d paid $3,000 for what he thought was MDMA, but when he sold it on to his web of friends and acquaintances, it became clear that he had bought rock salt. If he didn’t get his customers more product he’d be in serious trouble.
Scott stopped a few steps short of the dealer’s car. Through the window, he could see “four other massive, tatted-up dudes. And they’re just staring at me. And I thought: this isn’t worth getting stabbed over.” Scott went back to his car and drove away.
In less than a week Scott had lost $7,500 and he was terrified. He skipped the 21st and returned