An eye for detail has seen three youths taken into custody overnight following a fleeing driver incident, which started in Pukekohe.
Counties Manukau South Area Commander, Inspector Joe Hunter, says around 9.40pm on Wednesday evening, Police observed two vehicles of interest travelling in a convoy on East Street.
¡°While the vehicles had not yet been reported stolen, a Police unit noticed both vehicles had broken quarter light windows and called for additional units and Eagle to assist,¡± he says.
¡°Upon noticing Police, one of the vehicles has left the area at high speed, while the second vehicle followed in the same direction.¡±
Police did not pursue, however Eagle continued to track both vehicles as they entered the Southern Motorway at Bombay and travelled north.
Despite Police deploying spikes at the Drury off-ramp, one of the vehicles re-entered the motorway after exiting and travelled on the wrong side of the road.
Inspector Hunter says this was extremely reckless behaviour.
¡°The vehicle has reached excessive speeds while narrowly missing several members of the public.¡±
The vehicle then exited the motorway at Ramarama and was successfully spiked. It has eventually come to a stop in the shoulder and two occupants fled on foot to a nearby field.
¡°They were both taken into custody without further incident a short time later,¡± says Inspector Hunter.
The second vehicle involved elected to stop for Police on the Drury off-ramp without incident and the sole occupant was also taken into custody.
Further enquiries established both vehicles had been stolen in earlier incidents.
¡°We are very lucky no members of the public were injured during this incident and I commend our staff whose keen spotting of the broken quarter light windows led us to these arrests,¡± says Inspector Hunter.
¡°We hope the public can be reassured with have no tolerance for this brazen behaviour in our communities.¡±
A 17-year-old male has been charged in relation to this incident and is due to appear in the Manukau Youth Court today.
Two 14-year-olds have been referred to Youth Aid.
ENDS.
Anna Thompson/51½ÖÉä