Southern Police Say No Change In Crime, Including Car Burglaries

Several incidents of car theft have made the news recently, in Invercargill, affecting all areas of the community, including a new member of council.

Family Wants Answers After Assault And Theft Of Vehicle

Invercargill City Councillor Barry Stewart had his Nissan Safari stolen from his garage several months ago, and later found it crashed and abandoned on the Winton Bridge.

Within hours of it missing from his home, the windows had been blackened, licence plates ripped off and replaced, but when police found the truck it was identified as a Toyota Hilux.

A friend on Facebook alerted Barry to the truck, which also had $5000 worth of horse gear stolen from inside, and a brand new barbecue – a present from his sister in law.

“They had taken the batteries out of it and tried to set it alight. Then they jumped all over it and made a hell of a mess. The young buggars have obviously taken it for a joyride and then hit a hump and got stuck on the bridge.”

Barry said eventually a Detective in Invercargill rang him up asking to come in, to identify the stolen vehicle.

On Labour Day a young 21-year-old male was pulled over by a group of men in Crinan Street, who knocked him unconscious, left him with a broken cheekbone and also stole his ute.

Police responded to reports of a robbery where a gold Mazda Bounty utility was stolen and two people were assaulted, around 1:40am on Monday 23 October.

Enquiries are ongoing to locate those involved and hold them to account. Police have not yet recovered the stolen vehicle.

Southland Area Commander Inspector Mike Bowman said while the Southland area has its share of crime, they were not seeing an increase in the overall level of criminal activity or of any specific kind of offending.

“Police are committed to working to keep our communities safe, but we need the assistance of our communities to do this. We encourage people to report any suspicious behaviour so that we can respond and hold offenders to account.”