Ramraiders go on the rampage

By ELIZABETH BINNING

Police believe two ramraid burglaries in Cambridge could be linked to more than 35 similar incidents in the North Island this year.

The latest raid using a vehicle occurred early yesterday morning at Selectrix Retravision and Ross Todd Motors in Cambridge.

The raid caused thousands of dollars worth of damage and ended with two men on the run after a police chase near Rotorua.

Sergeant Gordon Grantham said an alarm went off at Selectrix Retravision at 1.53am as a Ford Telstar, which had been stolen earlier in the evening, was driven through the glass front doors.

Police allege three men stole four televisions, 20 cellphones, a laptop and car audio items before driving away in a Subaru Legacy, which had also been stolen earlier that evening.

Mr Grantham said minutes later a security guard saw the Subaru backed up to the entrance of Ross Todd Motors, several streets away.

The guard saw that the windows had been smashed and three men ran from the store. They took off in the Subaru at high speed, towards State Highway 1.

Several hours later police stopped the men, who were now in a different car, at a road block on State Highway 5 near the Mamakus, near Rotorua.

Detective Sergeant Lou Warner said while police spoke to the driver, one of the two passengers jumped into the driver's seat and sped off.

After a short chase the car was stopped using spikes but the two men escaped into bush. Items stolen from the Selectrix store were found in the abandoned car.

The Subaru was found burned out near Arapuni, Putaruru.

The damaged Ford was removed from the Selectrix Retravision store yesterday afternoon. Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner said a 27-year-old Hamilton man was expected to appear in the Rotorua District Court yesterday after being charged with driving while disqualified and burglary.

Police searching for the missing men had "promising leads".

"We believe we know who we are looking for and we a confident of finding them, " Mr Turner said.

He said an investigation was now under way to see if there was any connection between the Cambridge ramraids and a series of similar burglaries.