However, the man was still vacuuming his car when she returned 20 minutes later.

Chelsea noticed a pile of rubbish nearby.

“A dirty mattress, broken pallets, large clothing bags and 2-litre Pump bottles,” she said.

A BP attendant came out of the station and first asked Chelsea if the items belonged to her and, after she denied it, asked the man vacuuming his car.

“So she said, ‘I’m going to throw it away.’

Chelsea went through the carwash; however, once she came out, the man was still vacuuming his car.

She went inside to buy some chicken nuggets after waiting for another five minutes.

Not long afterwards, the man came into the station and demanded to know where his stuff was.

The situation soon worsened when he became more aggressive, accusing the staff of throwing his belongings away.

“He looked at me and said, ‘It was f**kin you, eh?”, Chelsea said.

“He then started pacing around the gas station, flailing his shirt around.”

It was then that a man, whom Chelsea described as a “regular dude”, turned to her and asked if she was okay.

“I said ‘I’m okay, but thank you though’.”

The man then paid for her chicken nuggets and warned her to get in her car and leave after the enraged man allegedly returned from his car with an axe.

“I’ve never reversed so quickly and precisely in my life. I was calling the police and my hands were shaking as I was driving home.

“It was the bumpiest drive of my life.”

Chelsea’s mum then posted an account of the incident on Facebook, thanking the man who had stepped in to reassure her daughter.

“To the man who helped my kid at the Gate Pā BP station this morning while some axe-wielding maniac went off his nut at her and the BP attendant – thank you so much,” she wrote.

“She’s only 16 and she said you gave out ‘safe dad energy’ when she was really scared.”

The 16-year-old echoed the statement.

“I just wanted to say thanks and it was really nice to have someone there,” she told the Herald.

A police spokesperson said they received a report of a person making threats at a commercial premises on Cameron Rd yesterday, where a man was present with the contents of his vehicle on the ground.

He was allegedly verbally heightened and abusive towards staff and police.

The spokesperson said the man was trespassed, gathered up his belongings and left without incident.

While an axe was mentioned in the initial report, officers did not locate or sight one when speaking to the man in question.

Enquiries are ongoing.