Police have arrested a 44-year-old man after a patrol car was stolen in Whangamata at the weekend.
An officer was left a little red faced after their vehicle was taken during a traffic stop on Saturday night.
A police vehicle was stolen and later recovered in Whangamata at the weekend.
'The man has been charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and will appear in court later this week,” says a statement from police.
'As the matter is now before the court police are unable to comment any further.”
The incident happened about 11.30pm. The officer had pulled a vehicle over for speeding and while the officer was talking to the driver, the passenger of the vehicle hopped into the patrol vehicle and driven off.
A SunLive reader says a number of road blocks where set up in the area but the patrol car was located by police about 3am in Opoutere.
At the time of the incident, police said 'all firearms were still secured in a locked box in the vehicle”.
Police say this is a rare and isolated incident.
2 comments
Before...
Posted on 27-06-2016 18:42 | By GreertonBoy
Anyone starts on the police officer and going on about what a joke this all is... while the fool who stole it was gallivanting around, had there been an urgent/life threatening situation the officer needed to be at urgently... someone might have died. And it might have been your family or mine who needed the cops assistance. This is very serious and totally stupid on the perps behalf. Police cars can not be started and stopped 100 times a day like yours and mine... the sensitive computer equipment means things should be switched off before cranking... that can add minutes to restarting the car (if the battery hasn't gone flat) Next time you need the police urgently, those who laugh at this, should hope no one has nicked the police car that was to have come to your rescue. So, don't laugh too loud. Kudos to the cop
purlion
Posted on 28-06-2016 08:47 | By dumbkof2
naughty little boy dont do it again do a few hours community service and all will be forgiven
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