Late last year Bay of Plenty police had their hands full as a full-on rural crime spree gripped the province. They tackled 30 crimes in 30 days.
People were reporting crimes, the usual rural items of choice for opportunistic thieves; items like trailers, quad bikes, and chainsaws were flying out the farm gate at an alarming rate. The thieves eventually escalating to larger vehicles and machinery.
People were reporting crimes, the usual rural items of choice for opportunistic thieves; items like trailers, quad bikes, and chainsaws were flying out the farm gate at an alarming rate. The thieves eventually escalating to larger vehicles and machinery.
One particular incident highlighted the value of having security cameras on farm to protect valuable property.
Sergeant Mike Owen from Western Bay of Plenty Police said it was a busy time before Christmas but the “best arrest” proved to be an entertaining story, that started with a stolen ute from Te Puke, that went on a joy ride to Taupo.
The thieves stole another ute in Taupo, and continued on their way in two utes.
During the theft of the Taupo ute, they ripped a camera off a wall in a shed. What the less than tech-savvy thieves didn’t realise, was the camera was sending data to the cloud and it was battery operated so as they were driving along the camera was filming the whole thing.
“She even had it sitting in her lap, pointing directly at her face,” Sergeant Mike said.
Police also captured footage of the pair on another camera, and we were able to see that the registrations of the utes had been swapped.
“The great thing about cameras is that we can follow a clear timeline of when things happened, and who is involved, it really makes for better outcomes.”
The pair were finally apprehended in Opotiki, in eastern Bay of Plenty, about two and a half hours drive from Taupo.
“The camera footage was absolutely critical in clearly identifying them. It saved an incredible amount of time. We would have been absolutely buggered without the cameras.
“We highly recommend rural people install security cameras to protect their property,” he said.