Plea after man punched
Police are appealing for information after an 18-year-old was punched in the neck as he worked on his tablet. The man was sitting on the rails outside Manaia House on Rathbone St when a male, described as Maori around 16 years old wearing a blue snapback hat and a long-sleeved shirt with a white and red diamond shape on it, walked up to him and punched him about 1am on Friday. Police said the offender tried to take the man's tablet but the man managed to grab it back and run away. The offender followed but walked away. Anyone who has any information can contact Whangarei police on 430 4500.
Lucky Lotto winners
Five households across New Zealand celebrated on Saturday after winning $200,000 each with Lotto first division. The winning Lotto tickets were sold at New World Whanganui, Harris Road Superette and Lotto in Auckland, This That and Lotto in Reefton, Countdown Manurewa in Auckland, and to a MyLotto player from Auckland. Powerball was not struck and has rolled over to Wednesday night, where the jackpot will be $16 million. The winning numbers were 6, 8, 9, 10, 17, 19, and bonus ball 37.
Hurt bikers airlifted
Two people were airlifted to Whangarei Hospital after a motorbike crash on Saturday night. Police understood there was a group of motorcyclists driving along Mangakahia Rd when two crashed about 11.34pm. They suffered moderate injuries and were airlifted to Whangarei Hospital.
Fire threatens homes
Firefighters were still dampening down yesterday after a large scrub fire which threatened nearby houses. Crews were called to the 500m beachfront scrub fire on Manning St, Rawene about 7.30pm on Friday. A fire communications spokesman said at one stage 10 fire engines were at the scene. The spokesman said houses were in danger but none were damaged.
Cyclist hurt in crash
A mountain biker who crashed off a track in the Waitangi Forest was stretchered out yesterday. The call for help came about 2.15pm yesterday after the male rider went down a bank. Volunteer firefighters helped St John ambulance staff collect the man before he was taken for treatment on an injured ankle.
Outages hit services
A series of outages for Spark could have affected Northland customers yesterday. From approximately 9.15am there were widespread outages, intermittently impacting some mobile and broadband services in locations around the country. This impacted 263 of the approximately 1500 Spark mobile sites in New Zealand, those sites predominantly in the Auckland region. The problem was identified as a hardware fault in a core network exchange and a fix was put in place.