A man wearing at most a beanie as he followed women around Kerikeri two weekends in a row has been arrested.
On June 11 a young woman said she was walking down Kerikeri Rd, not far from the roundabout on SH10, when a "very skinny" Caucasian man in his late 20s
pulled up beside her in a distinctive bronze-coloured van.
The driver was wearing nothing but a beanie and performing an indecent act as she walked past. He then drove another 30m, pulled up again and repeated the performance.
The driver then did a U-turn and parked on the other side of Kerikeri Rd, where he got out of his van and started rummaging in the boot - still wearing nothing but a beanie.
On Saturday police received a report of what Sergeant Phil Le Comte called "mirror behaviour".
This time a woman was walking on Inlet Rd when a bronze van pulled up near her. The driver was not performing an indecent act but this time even the beanie was absent. The driver did a U-turn, parked on the other side of Inlet Rd, and again got out of his van stark naked. The woman told police she would not have alerted them it if she had not read a newspaper report about a similar incident the previous weekend.
Mr Le Comte said the man was arrested a short time later wearing a singlet, but nothing else. A 29-year-old man was charged with two counts of performing an indecent act in a public place, and appeared yesterday in the Kaikohe District Court.
The man was in New Zealand on a year-long working visa and had dual Canadian/British citizenship. Mr Le Comte said the man had been in the country for less than three months. Police inquiries were continuing and Immigration had been notified. Mr Le Comte said a beanie had been recovered. A spokesman for Immigration New Zealand said the department did not comment on individual cases, but in general a person who committed a criminal offence while on a temporary visa could be liable for deportation.
Offending could also be taken into account in any further visa applications.
