The new Rav4 was deliberately torched. Photo / Supplied
A farmer who chased an alleged arsonist from a flaming car and asked him to pose for a cellphone photo was stunned when he agreed - twice.
"He just shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever' ... It's the most stupidest thing," said the Te Puke man, who asked
not to be named while the case is before the court.
The man was working on his Manoeka Rd lifestyle block just before 7am on Sunday with his father when he spotted smoke rising from scrub.
"I thought, 'That's not good', and yelled out to my dad, who was closer [to have a look]," he told the Herald.
His father said he had seen someone run up the road so the farmer jumped in his car to give chase.
"At that stage I could have gone [and] looked at the car and probably could have put it out," he said, but decided against it as the back bumper, door and mudguard were ablaze.
About 800m up the road he caught up with the runner.
"Hey bro, what's your name?" he asked.
The young man replied and the farmer searched his car for paper to write on, before asking him to repeat it.
The second time, he was told a different name.
The farmer then put his phone on camera mode and asked the man to pose.
The runner - wearing mud-covered ripped black trackpants and a grey hooded sweatshirt - obliged twice, the second time for a full body shot.
Then the farmer headed back down the road to find the car, described as a new Rav4, which was now fully ablaze.
Firefighters were called to put out the flames.
A 19-year-old man was due to face court this week charged with two counts of burglary and one count of arson.
The incident follows a case where a Whangarei couple forced two youths they believed had tagged their fence to dance while being videoed until police arrived, and then posted the footage on YouTube.
Last week, Karl Matthew Trail, 20, appeared in Whangarei District Court charged with wilful damage.
