Police said residents were 'perfectly justified' in barricading in the alleged boy racers. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Police said residents were 'perfectly justified' in barricading in the alleged boy racers. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A group of Oropi residents, fed up at boyracers hooning it up on their street, have taken to spying on the drivers - then barricading them in and calling police.

The Oropi Downs Residents' Group Incorporated says Phillips Drive has been the hub of boyracer mayhem in the Bay of Plenty town every Friday and Saturday night for the past few months.

Frustrated, about 10 residents banded together on Friday night to block two racers from leaving the street, a cul-de-sac.

Four cars with trailers prevented the vehicles leaving and when police arrived two young drivers had their cars impounded.

The treasurer of the Oropi group, who did not wish to be named for fear of retaliation, said residents were sick of "disturbed nights".

Not only did the young drivers allegedly rip up vacant land at the end of the street but lights had been "shot out" and letter boxes damaged.

"It's been getting worse over the last month. Many of us have reported it to police and given registration plates but they haven't been able to do anything.

So we decided to stop them, then get police to stop them," she said.

When asked whether the battle was over now, she said "absolutely not".

"We'll be monitoring it next weekend as well and we'll be ready to go again. We will continue to do this until the problem goes away."

Oropi Downs developer Brian Askin, who does not live at the development, was invited to take part in the sting. He kept lookout on Friday from 8pm and when the racers turned up at 11.30pm he said he watched them doing burnouts for about 10 minutes before ringing residents who were on standby.

Four drivers, their cars pulling trailers, blocked in the boyracers on a straight on Phillips Drive and more cars further up the road lit the way with their headlights.

A construction light was also turned on.

Mr Askin said 1.2ha of land with 10 sections on it was being ripped up.

Phillips Drive resident Jan Booysen said that "skids" on top of the sections Mr Askin was trying to sell were deterring new neighbours.

"People are like 'holy ****, I'm out of here. I don't want to have to deal with this'.