Teens arrested after ram-raid. Video / Edwin Zijderveld / Saarah Yas
Dramatic footage has emerged of police swarming a car in Auckland’s CBD after a ram-raid was earlier carried out on a North Shore dairy.
Police took six teenagers, aged from 13 to 16, into custody after a ram-raid on a Rothesay Bay dairy on Beach Rd in the city’s northearly this morning.
Videos obtained by the Herald show more than 10 police vehicles surrounding the stolen vehicle on Mayoral Drive as officers bound towards it to remove the driver and passengers.
A resident on Auckland’s Mayoral Drive says she arrived home from work around 4.30am and could hear all the loud sirens.
“I looked out my window and saw the police cars smashing into another vehicle and trying to stop them,” she said.
The Rothesay Bay dairy on Beach Rd in Auckland's North Shore. Photo / Hayden Woodward
She said she then went out into the street to get a better view of what was happening.
“I saw the police pulling out teenagers from the car and handcuffing them, and then from the scene found out that they were involved in a ram-raid and were trying to escape in the stolen car,” she said.
The teens were initially spotted by a team in the police Eagle helicopter.
The helicopter crew had been looking for an unrelated vehicle when they saw a car speeding away from the ram-raid at 3.55am, police said.
Eagle followed the car and provided location details to responding police units on the ground, who stopped the car on Mayoral Drive in the city centre, a police spokeswoman said.
“Six youths, aged 13 to 16, were taken into custody. The youths will appear in Youth Court at a later date.”
A second ram-raid also took place at a superette in East Auckland on Botany Road in Howick, shortly before 5am.
A car was found abandoned at the scene.
“A second car, believed to have also been used by the offender/s, was located on fire in Ōtara,” a police spokeswoman said.
“Inquiries are under way to identify and locate the offenders.”
