Whatever time of the day and wherever you may be reading this, hello and I hope it’s been a good one for you.

Well, I’m sure many were celebrating ANZAC day, a very poignant day for many New Zealanders reflecting on the sacrifices of those who fought for freedoms over a century ago and far away, but remain in the forefront of our thoughts today.

Being the end of three short working weeks I’m sure many are getting ready to go back a full week again but be aware your team in blue have been working through and just like rust we never sleep.

So, this week we have been keeping our focus on the roads with Operation Deterrence still ongoing and unfortunately yielding results. We are issuing infringement notices for non-seatbelt wearing, cell phone usage while driving, speeding, as well as other hazardous practices while driving.

Alcohol related offences have also been dealt with, again! Resulting in fines or dates with the judiciary for those involved.

The recent bout of heavy rain also caused some to get caught out while driving and delivered a spate of crashes; two single vehicles going off the road and a two-car crash on State Highway 6. Fortunately, no one was injured in any of these.

We have also had some light-fingered person at the skate park taking bank cards from mostly young people skating there. These have been taken out of cell phone cases when the phones have been left on the benches while the owners skate. So please parents get your kids to look after their property and not just trust it will be ok left unattended. Harsh lesson to learn with PayWave if their bank accounts get cleaned out.

Speaking of your money, scams are still ongoing with a PayPal scam being flavour of the day. So, if you are selling via marketplace, and the purchaser wants to do it through PayPal, don’t pay any money over with the promise of getting it returned because it won’t, you’ve lost it.

Good to see town come alive a bit more over the weekend, but as usual alcohol raised its head with a serious assault on Ardmore Street where a taxi van had a window smashed and two males then assaulted a person in the taxi. We have good lines of enquiry with this and CCTV footage, but any help from the public who witnessed it or know the offenders would be helpful and all information can be divulged to the team at the station.

Also, an out-of-town female was assisted back to her accommodation after calling police because she fell asleep in a bush and didn’t know where she was when she woke. Moral of the story - keep a check on your alcohol intake and feather bed beats privet bush any day.

Stay safe Wānaka, drive safe as winter is on its way and have a great week.