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Police are vowing to track down and prosecute a woman who made a hoax call claiming that an unnamed racing identity was trapped and injured in his car in the Kaimai Ranges.
The call resulted in a three-hour search for the man involving 50 emergency service workers and the police Eagle helicopter from Auckland.
A woman claiming to be the man's partner called police on Saturday evening, saying his BMW had plunged off State Highway 29 between Matamata and Tauranga.
She said he was trapped inside the smoking car and had sent her several text messages, but was unable to give his exact location before his cellphone battery ran out.
Senior Sergeant Wayne Mills of Tauranga said the woman had made the call from a prepay cellphone and such calls were hard to track.
"We haven't located the original source of that call," he said. "We're still working on it."
He said that when the woman was found, she would be prosecuted.
"At the very least, it will be wasting police time, but we've got the Fire Service and ambulance tied up for quite some time as well."
