Five to appear in youth court in relation to police chase through Auckland

Police at the scene in Glen Eden. Photo / Nick Leack

Five 16-year-old males will appear in the North Shore youth court tomorrow in connection with an aggravated robbery on the North Shore and a pursuit across Auckland today.

All five will be charged with aggravated robbery, injures with intent and breaching bail.
One will be charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, reckless driving and aggravated failing to stop. Four will be charged with unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle.

Police are still searching for a sixth alleged offender.

Inspector Kerry Watson said five males entered a family-run electronics store on the North Shore today, three armed with various weapons.

"One had a short-handled axe that was brandished at and threatened one of the occupants of the store.

"One of the victims was chased and kicked in the face. That victim has severe bruising."
Glass display cabinets were smashed and electrical items were stolen.

The offenders fled in a car driven by a sixth person, police said.

After the driver failed to stop near Westgate, police chased the vehicle but called off the pursuit when the driving got too dangerous in Swanson.

The offenders threw stolen items out of the car while they sped through Glen Eden but were finally stopped by road spikes laid by police.

The car was dumped at the Glen Eden shops close to a childcare centre and the offenders ran, followed by police on foot.

Five people were arrested in the vicinity.

Manager of Servisal Equipment Chris Howard saw the whole event unfold. He said young men jumped out of a car with electronics, fast food wrappers and an axe after a car stopped on a one-way road.

"I saw a group of young fellas in a white Subaru station wagon with four flat tyres. So it must have been spiked. They came down to the mall in Glen Eden and the police chased them up the road. They all jumped out, bailed out of the car with heaps of junk like fast food wrappers.

"[Police] found cellphones, a bag full of goodies [electronics] and an axe, a little tomahawk."

Howard said the boys ran up the walkway on to the main road. One stayed on the road while the other three fled up a railway corridor into the back gardens of residents.

Police cars have been seen on West Coast Road in Glen Eden.

Howard said the abandoned car brought traffic to a standstill.

"It's been a quiet day, we needed a bit of excitement."

One woman told the Herald she was in her car outside the shops in Glen Eden when she saw a policeman "running around with a hand gun".

The woman, who did not want to be named, said there were about eight or nine police cars involved and also a helicopter circling above the shops.