Crimeline is now written and published by the Wānaka App, based on a weekly police briefing.

There have been a number of burglaries reported in the past week, including a break in at Te Kura o Tititea Mt Aspiring College (MAC) which was reported to police on Sunday January 14.

The young people responsible were captured on CCTV footage, Senior Sergeant Chris Brooks said.

“We’re pursuing positive lines of enquiry,” he said. “If anyone knows anything, or maybe they feel a little bit guilty themselves, now’s the time to come on in.”

The school buildings were entered but Chris said he didn’t believe anything was taken.

SAR, bad boaties

There continue to be search and rescue callouts, Chris said, including another case of a group of visitors stuck on the wrong side of the river at Fantail Falls (north of Makarora).

This happens after rain, he said, adding: “And we’ve got so many visitors who don’t wear the right gear.”

Closer to Wānaka, Queenstown Lakes harbourmaster Phil Weir has come across a few incidents where he has been “challenged and got pushback from boat users”, Chris said.

“There are some idiots out there on the water. If the harbourmaster is not respected the police will step in and support him.”

He said it is a small group of people who are “either not adhering to marine rules or simply have some bad behaviour on board”. Alcohol is often part of the problem, he added.

Roads, fire risk

“We continue to deal with a lot of poor driving from foreign visitors as well as locals,” Chris said.

“You need to be aware of who is coming around the bend and drive defensively.”

Most incidents occur on the Crown Range or the route between Queenstown and Wānaka.

He said he could move the “whole police station to the Crown Range and still not fix [the problem]”.

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“No matter how bad the driver is in front of you, don’t make it worse by trying to beat them around the next bend,” he said.

There is increased fire risk in the back country and police support the Department of Conservation’s messaging about being careful and not lighting fires.

Two new frontline police officers have been appointed for Wānaka and will be starting soon, Chris said.

New Year’s Eve mop up continues

Chris says police are still dealing with New Year’s operations, including a number of assault complaints.

“One included a suspect presenting a knife several times in a crowd,” he said.

“We’ve identified the person and the police are following positive lines of enquiry.”

There were no sexual assaults reported, he said, which was an improvement from the previous couple of years.

“Reducing alcohol in the event was our number one priority,” he said. “Every youth we dealt with had alcohol supplied by an adult.”

Police will debrief the event next Monday (January 22) with event manager Craig Gallagher of Summit Events, the first of a number of meetings on the event.

Chris said the Rhythm & Alps Festival during the New Year period reduced alcohol servings from four to two, as police had requested. 

While there was no drug testing at the event, a number of drugs were seized as people entered the event, and police have sent those to the National Drug Intelligence Bureau for testing.

Lost property galore

There continues to be a bumper lot of lost property at the station, including lots of driver's licences and other ID, wallets, phones, and jewellery.

Call 111 when you need an emergency response from police, fire or ambulance.

Call 105 to report things that don’t need urgent police assistance.

Call *555 to report road incidents that are urgent but not life-threatening.

To make an anonymous crime report contact Crime Stoppers.

PHOTO: Wānaka App