Napier police have grave concerns after discovering a cache of explosives -- enough to cause "real mayhem" -- was stolen from a parked car on Saturday night.
Detective Emmet Lynch, of Napier CIB, said an 18-year-old farm worker had come forward to report the theft after hearing of
the attempted destruction of a Taradale letterbox.
A neighbour interrupted a youth connecting a bomb in the Church Road letterbox, which is shaped like a cactus and dubbed Prickle by locals.
The neighbour confronted the Pakeha youth, aged about 16, about 1.77m tall and of very skinny build, but he escaped before police arrived.
Military explosive experts from Trentham had to be called in to disable the bomb.
Police were worried the bomb -- a sophisticated plastic explosive device -- might be only the tip of the iceberg.
The teenaged farm worker said he had a box of plastic explosives, detonators and wiring stolen from his car.
The box held four or five 25cm sticks of "Powergel" explosive five detonators and electrical wiring.
The teenager had left the box in the car parked off Napier Terrace on Saturday night.
Mr Lynch said the teenager was not being linked with the attack on the letterbox and had told police he had taken the items from a rural property in northern Hawke's Bay to "show off" to some people.
Police had grave concerns, he said.
Even if the explosives were in the hands of someone with no real criminal intent, they were extremely dangerous.
"If it does get into the wrong hands we're talking about real mayhem," he said.
Mr Lynch urged anyone with information to come forward.
"Even if it's an anonymous call, if someone rang and said they'd left the box in a garage or a park, we could go and pick it up.
"Then it's recovered and away from the public."
Mr Lynch said although the teenager was not involved in the letterbox attack, he may still face charges for being unlawfully in possession of the explosives.
Police would decide tomorrow whether to prosecute him.
- NZPA
