Police are seeking help from the Eastern Bay community to locate a mobile phone that was lost by a member of the public in Kawerau and contains information that will assist an investigation.
The grey Huawei phone was dropped between New World and the Golden Horse in Kawerau on Wednesday, April 30.
Police have information that a woman found and picked up the phone, and police have also become aware that the phone she found contains images that would be of assistance to a current investigation.
"In order not to jeopardise the ongoing investigation I can't comment on the precise nature of the images, but it is important that we locate the phone and we would ask the woman who found it to hand it in to us as soon as possible," said Whakatane police Detective Sergeant Max Holder.
Police have made various inquiries to find the phone which has either been switched off or run out of power. The phone itself is a touch screen phone which is quite scratched and has Blu Tack under the back cover to hold the cover in place.