Police catch Palmerston North burglar four minutes after being called

A speedy response from police meant a night-time burglar was arrested minutes after he entered a Palmerston North house.

It took police just four minutes to arrive on the scene and catch the man still on the property with a stolen toolbox.

The man reportedly entered the home last night, startling the occupants. They called police at 8.46pm and, by 8.50pm, officers arrived.

“When police arrived, they located the man leaving the address with a stolen toolbox and took him into custody,” police said in a statement.

A spokeswoman said officers had earlier been called to a report of a “suspicious male” at a different property nearby. They were responding to that call when the one about the burglary came in.

After further inquiries, the man was also charged with a second burglary in the area, in which more tools were taken.

The 41-year-old is scheduled to appear in Palmerston North District Court today, charged with burglary.

The quick action contrasts with figures in 2022 showing police response times had more than doubled across half of the nation in the previous five years and included wait times of more than 100 minutes in some parts of Auckland.

Data at that time showed the response time in the Central District was 32 minutes and 29 seconds. Last night’s callout happened eight times faster than the average callout from 2022.

The burglary response bears a similarity to a case in 2018 when police were able to recover a stolen jetski four minutes after it was reported missing.

If it weren’t for the couple’s neighbour waking in the early hours of the morning to the sound of burglars trying to break a lock pin off a trailer, the $17,000 jetski might never have been recovered, the owner told the Herald at the time.

Officers pose with the jetski they managed to recover four minutes after it was stolen. Photo / NZ Police

The woman, from Porirua, who wanted to be named only as Paula, said she and her husband were away house-sitting for a family member when burglars struck at their waterfront home.

They broke in through the back gate, which was accessible from the beach, hauling the jetski on its $2000 trailer out to the road, she said.

Police said the theft was reported at 4.51am and the jetski was found at 4.54am.

It was undamaged and was returned to the owners.

Paula said the incident “gave us a bit of a fright” but the quick response made them feel “a lot better about it”.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.