A group of men believed to have been at a karaoke bar had to get towed out of an Auckland arcade last night after trying to drive down a staircase.



The group tried to drive out of St Kevin's Arcade, on Karangahape Rd, in a 4WD and got stuck on a staircase that leads down to Myers Park.



Matt Wall, who lives in the arcade, said he was playing video games with his flatmates around 11pm when he heard what he thought was someone dropping a bottle down the stairs.



When the 23-year-old went to investigate he saw the vehicle stuck on the top steps and four suited men trying to move it.



"It seems like a pretty ridiculous thing. I think they thought it (the arcade stairs) was a ramp to a car park and they've driven down and gone, 'oh f***'."



Wall said the men in the vehicle, aged between their 20s and 40s, tried to push the 4WD backwards while one of them tried to reverse it.



First Recovery were called to remove it, a job Wall said took about half an hour.



The top stairs were "toasted".



A tow truck spokesman today said the call out was "hilarious".



Police also attended the scene, took photos of the stuck vehicle and spoke to the driver, Wall said.



It is not known if any charges have been laid.



Wall said in the six months he'd lived in the arcade no other vehicles had tried to drive through it.



But Wine Cellar owner Rohan Evans said shop owners had encountered a problem with people using the front of the arcade as a parking spot.



The problem had got worse in recent years when a smooth pedestrian crossing was put in, he said.



He labelled the men in the 4WD "vandals in suits".



Alleluya Cafe owner Peter Hawkesby said the damage to the stairs was mostly superficial but he hoped the people who did it would pay for it to be repaired; otherwise it would come out of the operating expenses of shop owners.