Three 'silly buggers' grabbed after three-hour police chase

Cyril Macdonald

Police have arrested three men after a three-hour chase reaching speeds of 150km/h across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

One of the men was wanted for allegedly blackmailing a Mt Maunganui woman after the theft of her father's ashes in a burglary last month.

Police had offered a cash reward for information on the whereabouts of Douglas Morris, 29, who they said was one of the three men arrested when the chase ended at a rural property west of the Kaimai Ranges yesterday.

Acting Senior Sergeant Darryl Brazier, of Tauranga, said Morris and two other men, also in their late 20s, had been charged with car theft, aggravated assault on police and driving offences in relation to the chase.

The trio are due to appear in Tauranga District Court today.

They allegedly used stolen vehicles to evade police for three hours, beginning at 8am in Putaruru, and damaged two police cars during the ensuing chase - ramming one and throwing a metal torch at the other.

They also evaded road spikes laid in several locations.

A helicopter and officers from Putaruru, Matamata, Tokoroa, Rotorua, Taupo and Tauranga were involved in the pursuit. Up to 20 police cars eventually cornered the men.

Detective Sergeant Karl Thornton, of Tokoroa, said police were forced to abandon the pursuit several times because the men were driving erratically at up to 150km/h.

"They were crossing over the centre line so there was a danger to the public and police."

The pursuit began when the trio allegedly stole a late-model Nissan Navara ute belonging to a builder parked at a Benchmark store on Princes St, Putaruru.

Putaruru police tracked the vehicle south to Pinedale Forest after a member of the public sighted it following broadcasts on local radio.

Once in the forest, the men allegedly changed to another stolen vehicle, a Ford Courier 4WD ute taken from Auckland and hidden in the bush.

The 4WD then spent 45 minutes eluding police on a complex web of forestry roads, at one point ramming and disabling a patrol car that tried to box it in. The pursuit continued on to State Highway 5 at the top of the Mamaku Ranges.

The vehicle was then driven north to Tapapa and turned right on to State Highway 28, which connects Putaruru with State Highway 29 over the Kaimai Ranges to Tauranga.

Confronted with police reinforcements when almost at Tauranga, the 4WD turned around and went back the way it came.

In the final stretch of the pursuit, the men allegedly threw a metal torch at a patrol car windscreen, before they were eventually arrested up a driveway they had taken to avoid two sets of road spikes.

They were trying to ram through a fence and drive across a paddock at the top of the drive when Cyril Macdonald, the property owner, confronted them.

Mr Macdonald said he went up to the vehicle, stuck with its back wheels in the air, and demanded to know what the men were doing.

"They abused me when I opened the door," he said. "But they're silly buggers. They were in a four-wheel drive but it was in two-wheel drive and they only had road tyres on."

Seconds later, police with dogs arrived and the men were taken into custody.