Gold medal for vigilance as woman spies men in her neighbour's yard

Police cars raced to an Epsom neighbourhood on a report of two men acting suspiciously. Photo / File

Two men high-jumping a fence was not the type of athletics an Auckland woman expected to see this morning.

The Epsom woman, who wished not to be named, was watching the Olympics about 7.45am when she saw two "dodgy-looking" men jump her neighbour's fence on Merivale Ave.

"I was just having my morning oats and watching the highlights of the Olympics, just a pretty standard morning," she told the Herald.

"I saw these two guys come around the side of the [neighbour's] property, walk around the garden and jump the back fence.

"There are heaps of burglaries in the area and I thought that didn't look very legitimate, so I rang the local police station and got onto the phone with them."

Police were at her door in minutes, she said.

"Within two minutes a police car turned up with a dog and they went off in pursuit of the guys in the direction I pointed out."

She said the area was quickly flooded with marked and unmarked police vehicles, and the Eagle helicopter hovered overhead.

A police spokeswoman said the men were alleged to have been involved in a police pursuit earlier that morning.

"A pursuit started this morning at around 6am in Mt Roskill and ended in Epsom," she said.

"The two males in the vehicle left the scene. At around 8am a member of the public called police to report two men acting suspiciously in the Epsom area.

"Police were immediately deployed to the area, along with the assistance of Delta [police dogs] and Eagle and the two men were taken into custody."

One man was now in Auckland Hospital receiving treatment for minor dog bite injuries.

Another 31-year-old man has been charged with breach of bail, failing to stop and reckless driving.