Residents foil attempt to steal electrical equipment

An Auckland couple have confessed to four burglaries after residents from Bay View, 11 kilometres north of Napier, interrupted them making off with $30,000 worth of equipment from PDL Electronics yesterday morning.

Residents called police when they saw a man in his 30s smashing a Subaru with his teenage female partner inside. Coming down off a "P" high, the man was "being really aggro," Napier's acting Senior Sergeant Graham Single said.

He calmed down when police talked to him and said he would go into rehabilitation.

"You're allowed to smash your own car," Mr Single said.

But while police were talking to the man, residents were trying to call police a second time -- they'd spotted a woman dumping electronic equipment down a bank.

"They had no joy because our phones were playing up," Mr Single said.

Residents gave up on the phones when they saw police leave the scene, and drove to the Napier police station instead.

Police returned just in time to see the couple about to drive off with the electronic gear they'd retrieved from the ditch.

Mr Single said the couple confessed to four burglaries, one in Hastings and two in Napier.

Mr Single said the residents were "switched on" and the incident was "a reminder of what drugs can do".

- nzpa