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A police station in north Auckland was vandalised overnight, with security camera footage capturing a man smashing windows and damaging the building.
Police arrested a 25-year-old over the incident at the Warkworth Police Station on Falls St.
Senior Sergeant Roger Small said police learned of the damage when staff came in to work this morning.
“Staff . . . returned . . . around 4.20am to find all the front windows of the building had been smashed and damage caused to the interior of the station,” Small said.
“Fortunately, no one was injured and the person responsible did not gain access inside the compound or the station.
“After reviewing CCTV, we arrested one person who is well-known to police,” he said.
Small said the incident had disappointed him as the police station was a vital part of the community and time and resources would be wasted having to fix the damage.
“However, I would like to commend our staff on their work in quickly identifying the alleged offender and holding them to account.”
The man accused of intentionally damaging the station will appear in the North Shore District Court today.
Sensitive files stolen from derelict station
The damage to the Warkworth station overnight comes after police revealed a burglar broke into the former Auckland City police station in 2022 and stole documents and expired pepper spray.
Personal details, including names and addresses of firearms owners, were among the documents stolen from the disused station.
Documents and pepper spray were stolen from the now-disused Auckland city police station in Vincent St. Photo / File
The documents relate to people in the Auckland city centre area who renewed or got a new licence between 2015 and 2017.
Some fear the documents could serve as a shopping list for criminals wanting to steal lawfully obtained guns.
The Auckland District Commander, Superintendent Karyn Malthus, believes the Vincent St burglary occurred in early May 2022 but police didn’t learn of it until later that month, on May 25, 2022.
Police contacted people identified in 444 data sheets containing firearms licence holders’ names and address details.
Michael Luke Robertson was sentenced in the Auckland District Court last year. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Those firearms owners were advised of the breach and that the documents had been recovered, Malthus said.
A serial burglar, Michael Murray Luke Robertson, 31, was caught with sensitive firearms documents pilfered from the station. He was sentenced to prison in March 2023 after pleading guilty to 24 charges.
He was ordered to serve two years and four months’ imprisonment but has already been in jail 474 days while awaiting resolution of the myriad cases, which date back to 2020.
