Police have revealed more details about an alleged crime spree across Otago which has ended with two teenage girls facing charges in Youth Court.
A 17-year-old was arrested yesterday after Dunedin police spiked a stolen Toyota Hilux which she was driving in John Wilson Ocean Dr, St Kilda.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond said she had been charged with three burglaries, two unlawful takings of a motor vehicle and a theft of petrol from a service station.
The burglaries are alleged to have happened at Palmerston Four Square, Cromwell Night ‘n’ Day, and a farm bike shop in Alexandra.
During the Alexandra burglary, a vehicle belonging to a member of the public was allegedly rammed by the offenders leaving the scene.
Snr Sgt Bond said a 14-year-old girl, who was a passenger in the vehicle, had been bailed to appear in Dunedin Youth Court, but charges were still being collated.
A third person in the vehicle, a 17-year-old boy, was released without charge, but he had been referred to Youth Aid for unlawfully being in a vehicle, he said.
Police were still looking for one other person in relation to the burglaries.
Police 'disturbed' by spate of youth crime
A spate of youth crime, including drink-driving and joyriding in stolen cars, has been described by Dunedin police as "disturbing".
Officers swooped in to spike joyriders in an allegedly stolen ute in John Wilson Ocean Dr yesterday.
The afternoon drama followed a long weekend marred by a spate of youth drink-driving and stolen vehicles in the city.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond said police dealt with seven drink-drivers aged 20 or under, including a 19-year-old woman seen "spinning out" on the Southern Motorway who recorded a breath alcohol level of 975mcg.
"The message isn’t getting through.
"People are still drinking and then driving — particularly those in the under-20 age group, where it is a zero alcohol limit.
"That’s particularly disturbing.
Also on Monday, a 17-year-old male was stopped in King Edward St, where police found him to be on a "reinstate" driver’s licence, which meant his licence had been taken from him for a previous incident and he had not taken the appropriate measures to get it back.
Snr Sgt Bond said he was forbidden to drive and was made to walk home.
But later that afternoon, he was stopped by police again, driving another car.
The car was impounded and he was given an infringement notice.
On Sunday, police stopped a vehicle in Richardson St about 2.25am, where the driver and passenger attempted to change seats.
"A 16-year-old eventually came clean that she was the driver," Snr Sgt Bond said.
She recorded a breath alcohol level of 202mcg and was referred to Youth Aid for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Also on Sunday, a 17-year-old man was referred to Youth Aid after recording 379mcg in Hillside Rd.
"Despite being the only person in the vehicle, he denied he was the driver," Snr Sgt Bond said.
Meanwhile, two girls and a boy under 17 were arrested in John Wilson Ocean Dr, in Dunedin, about noon yesterday after they allegedly drove a stolen Toyota Hilux from Central Otago.
Police said two of the youths were allegedly involved in several incidents across the Otago region over the weekend, including three burglaries, two unlawful vehicle takes and a petrol drive-off.
During one of the burglaries in Alexandra, a vehicle belonging to a member of the public was allegedly rammed by the offenders leaving the scene.
A 14-year-old female and a 17-year-old female are due to appear in the Dunedin Youth Court today and next Monday.
Police were still looking for one person in relation to the burglaries.
Earlier Snr Sgt Bond said the young people had been detained for questioning about several offences that occurred over King’s Birthday Weekend in Dunedin, Palmerston, Cromwell and Alexandra.
"We had been making inquiries into all of the stolen vehicles over the weekend and part of the investigation led us to that vehicle and we made inquiries to locate that vehicle."
The ute was travelling about 20kmh when it was stopped by deploying road spikes about noon.
"We used road spikes so we could stop it safely without it turning into a fleeing-driver event," Snr Sgt Bond said.
The incident came after 10 cars were stolen from various Dunedin suburbs and taken on joyrides around the city before being dumped during last weekend.
Snr Sgt Bond said it was likely the same group of young people were involved in all of the thefts.
"They’ll just drive it around, dump it, find a new one, dump it, and so on."
He believed no suburb was immune to car thefts.
Caversham, Brighton, Fairfield and Wakari were some of the suburbs the cars were stolen from and Mazda Demios and Toyota Aquas appeared to be the most popular choices for the thieves.
Six vehicles had been recovered by police and were at different stages of being analysed for fingerprints.
