A 28-year-old man arrested after the alleged theft of a police vehicle has made an appearance in court this morning and been remanded in custody.
The vineyard worker is accused of stealing a dog-handler’s vehicle after he was bitten by a police dog in Christchurch on Saturday morning and then allegedly went on the run over the weekend.
The officer’s ID and petrol cards were also stolen in the process. It sparked a city-wide hunt for the man.
A number of search warrants were carried out on Monday morning and the man was found.
He was arrested and appeared in the Christchurch District Court from custody via audio-visual link on Tuesday morning on several charges, including the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, namely a police dog handler’s $30,000 Holden Equinox, stealing a police officer’s cellphone and wallet valued at $400, escaping from police custody, dangerous driving on Blenheim Rd, failure to stop for police when signalled, and unlawfully getting into another vehicle.
He also faces several other outstanding charges on unrelated matters.
A duty lawyer said no application for bail - which police would have opposed - was made but asked for interim name suppression so the accused can seek a lawyer and inform his family.
Community Magistrate Sally O’Brien granted interim name suppression and remanded the man in custody without plea until December 14.
Police today also spoke to The New Zealand Herald about staff having to make “decisions around a number of factors at any job including whether the police vehicle needs to remain running”.
“In a lot of cases, police vehicles are required to be left running for long periods, to run red and blue lights, and radios when at critical incidents or road crashes,” a police spokeswoman said.
“We trust our staff to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis depending on the requirements of the job they are attending.
“Our later Holden models and Skoda vehicles have ATIS (Anti-Theft Ignition System) installed, which prevents a vehicle being stolen if the key fob is with the officer.”
The was bitten by the dog after allegedly earlier stealing another vehicle but he managed to “evade arrest”, police said, before getting in the dog-handler’s vehicle, which had been left running.
He then allegedly fled by driving it away.
Other police vehicles pursued the man for a short time but lost sight of the stolen vehicle, police said.
Two other police vehicles also collided, causing damage to both.
The stolen vehicle was discovered abandoned on Sheppard Pl in St Albans about 8.05am - about 15 minutes after it was taken.
“The incident will be subject to a district review,” a police spokeswoman said yesterday.
-By Kurt Bayer
