A group of people wanting to bring Lime Scooters from Canterbury to North Otago have carted the motorised devices more than 200km. Photo / Jacquie Webby
One Lime employee is sure to have a sour taste in their mouth after driving 500km to pick up some scooters that were taken on a cross-region road trip.
Around 10 Lime scooters have been found in Oamaru, around 250 km away from their city of operation in Christchurch.
Residents noticed something quite peculiar after a group of men riding the bright green scooters zipped past.
Ben Rawson said he noticed a group of men riding 10 Lime scooters in the town's north end on Sunday afternoon.
They weren't doing anything wrong and appeared to be in a tour group, he said.
"It was clearly just a group of guys having a bit of fun."
They seemed to be using the scooters to tour the town's rugby fields and ride through the Catholic school, St Kevin's College.
He said the same amount of scooters were found dumped in a pile on Virgil St, a short distance from where he first spotted the group of men.
It was previously understood that Lime scooters operated on a GPS lock and once out of the city of operation would not work.
Recent reports appears to challenge this.
Lime would not comment on GPS details but confirmed scooters had been taken from Christchurch and found in Oamaru.
A spokeswoman said a Lime team member had travelled to collect the scooters but would not confirm how many were taken.
Just last week, the e-scooter company was banned from the streets of Auckland and Dunedin on Friday because of the safety issues.
Its licences were temporarily revoked by Auckland and then Dunedin councils amid growing safety concerns following a number of incidents in which the front wheels on the e-scooters unexpectedly locked.
More than 185,000 riders have taken nearly one million trips on Lime scooters in Auckland alone since its launch in October. The San Francisco-based company estimated it has prevented more than 300,000 vehicle trips.
It is unclear when a decision on Lime's future in Auckland will be made.
On Friday, the council said Lime was expected to report back to it by Monday, but Dean Kimpton, the council's chief operating officer, said in a statement to the Herald this afternoon, he was expecting to hear from Lime "early this week".
"[Council] will then need to consider this information before making any further decisions," he said.
"We expect to make those decisions within 24 hours of receiving their update."
However, he said the council had received almost 5000 emails from Aucklanders about Lime's licence since the ban was imposed on Friday - the vast majority in support of the scooters.
“Avoid the area and consider using an alternative route if possible.”