Teen apologises for hoax distress call

By JO-MARIE BROWN

After a few beers, Andrew Houpt thought it would be funny to use his family's marine radio to report that their boat was sinking in Lake Taupo.

That the 6.5m-long runabout had been moored safely in the Kinloch marina left the 14-year-old shamefaced yesterday as he apologised for the hoax call, which led to one of the lake's biggest searches in 10 years.

"I was just having a bit of fun really," he said, having already fronted up to the search and rescue crews who spent 2 1/2 hours scouring the lake late on Monday night.

"I didn't think about what would happen."

Senior Constable Barry Shepherd said the callout cost police about $7000.

Nearly 60 people and 11 boats searched the water around the North West end of Lake Taupo while the Tranz Rail rescue helicopter used infrared thermal imaging equipment overhead.

Yesterday, the Wellington teenager went public with his apology to the media, saying no one should fool around with marine radio.

Andrew, on holiday at Kinloch with his family, said that he and two friends were on board the boat around 8:30 pm when he picked up the radio and called the empty vessel moored next to theirs.

"I said, 'We're taking on water and we have you in our vision, request immediate assistance'.

"Then the Taupo Coastguard came on and I started making stuff up," he said.

Having told the coastguard that he was sinking off Kawakawa Bay, Andrew then switched off the radio and went to another friend's house.

"I thought I shouldn't have done it but I didn't think there was much I could do about it."

He finally confessed to his parents when he returned home around 11 pm and found them watching a large search and rescue operation taking place on the lake.

"Mum just doesn't want to look at me now and dad's pretty angry," he said.

Senior Constable Shepherd said because of the boy's age, he would be referred to the police youth aid section rather than being charged.

He said police would not be averse to Andrew wanting to pay the $7000 search bill - or his parents making a donation of that amount.

Among those who received a personal apology yesterday was the search coordinator, Michael Drake, who said he organised the largest deployment of vessels and people he could remember in the past decade.

"It's a matter of throwing all your resources at it because if that boat had sunk it would have been life-threatening."

Mr Drake said he was annoyed to discover it was a false alarm but relieved that no one was hurt.

"If someone does give a distress call, in my experience it is always heard and what young Andrew didn't realise is that his call rapidly set in motion a big Machine.

"It's a good lesson to everyone out there that you need to be careful and that marine radios are powerful things."

With his eyes downcast yesterday, Andrew appeared to have learned that lesson the hard way.

"I want to say thanks to everybody and that I'm sorry.

"Nobody should stuff around with a marine radio."

nzherald.co.nz/marine