A selfie with a difference has gone viral among the Rotorua mountain biking community after an alleged bike thief was caught red-handed.
Tu and Tak Mutu's photo, showing themselves with a police officer talking to the alleged thief in the background, achieved almost 1900 likes on their Facebook page and reached almost 50,000 Facebook users.
On Sunday the Mountain Bike Rotorua owners saw a man riding what they believed was a bike that had been stolen from their Waipa hub the previous week. First they checked if anyone matching the description had rented a bike - they hadn't - so they decided to approach the man. After stopping him on the Te Ara Ahi cycleway they asked to look at the bike - and discovered they were right.
"Each bike we have has its own unique identifier, and our sticker was still on the top tube," Tak Mutu said. "We knew it was ours. Tu said 'that's our bike' and the serial number on the bottom would match the police report. The alleged thief started to walk away and Tu followed him on the bike, filming him as he walked."
Tak said he got back into his car, called police and drove to the other end of the cycleway to block the alleged thief's path. Once police arrived the Mutus took a selfie to capture the moment.
