On Wednesday 25 November, 2015 at 1.30am a car smashes through the front window of Diamonds On Richmond.
The Christmas decorations were about to go up and the new cabinets had just been installed. This store was many years in the making and celebrating their first Christmas was a highly anticipated event.
Arriving to what they thought was a ram raid and attempted robbery on their business, they found out the crash was actually a car accident caused by a speeding drunk driver. He and the two passengers were lucky to be alive.
Thankfully the doors were only closed for three days while a small team, but mostly one man, Stuart Hurst, cleaned up the complete mess that was the shop front, ready for trading by the Saturday. “We can’t thank Stu enough for what he did for us, basically working for three solid days till we could open the doors to the public, he was just incredible.”
There were many others offering support and help to them, including Hell Pizza Grey Lynn who delivered pizzas to the workers. “We were just overwhelmed by how much support we had, we even had customers coming from out of the area to give us their business and other jewellers offering their premises to trade from, it was just amazing,” explains Michelle.
Diamonds On Richmond was established in 2008 and was originally run from a villa in Grey Lynn, by private appointment only. As the business grew, larger premises were required and Michael and Michelle moved to a commercial building with more space. As much as they loved being there, it had always been a dream of theirs to open a boutique store on Richmond Road and when 98 Richmond Road became available to lease, the pair jumped at the opportunity as they just loved the character of the building and the location.
“We love the community here in Ponsonby/Grey Lynn and feel we have now arrived at the location DOR was always destined for. The business continues to grow and we couldn’t be happier with where everything is at now,” explains Michael.
While the crash changed the plans they had for their very first Christmas in the store, the support and love shown to them by the community was overwhelming to say the least and although it has taken over a year to properly rebuild the store, the brother and sister team say they wouldn’t change a thing and have learnt so much over that time.