An alleged thief with a passion for electric bikes has had his plans punctured after Police caught on.
°Â²¹¾±³Ù±ð³¾²¹³Ù¨¡ West Detective Sergeant Jimmy Kim says Police received a report on 23 January of e-bikes stolen from a property in Parnell.
¡°Three weeks later we received information that these items were being sold on Facebook.
¡°The suspect was identified as living in West Auckland so our team followed up as we were aware that multiple e-bikes had also been stolen from around that area.¡±
Detective Sergeant Kim says his team executed a search warrant at an address on Great North Road, Henderson where they located a number of items of interest.
¡°Police found 11 e-bikes (valued at $58,000) and 200 rounds of?0.22 caliber ammunition at the address.
¡°So far we have established the bikes were stolen from Hobsonville, Albany, Ponsonby, Parnell, and Takapuna and have managed to return seven of them back to their rightful owners.
¡°Police take this type of offending seriously and work hard to hold offenders to account and I¡¯d like to commend our staff for their work in identifying the alleged offender.¡±
A 36-year-old man has been charged with two counts of burglary and unlawful possession of ammunition and will reappear in Wait¨¡kere District Court on 14 March.
Enquiries are ongoing and further charges are likely.
If you witness any suspicious behaviour report it to Police on 105 if it¡¯s after the fact or 111 if it¡¯s happening now.
ENDS.
Holly McKay/51½ÖÉä