Selfie starring bike suspect goes viral (+ video)

SNAPPED: Mountain Bike Rotorua owners Tu (front) and Tak Mutu took this photo to capture the moment an alleged bike thief was caught. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A selfie with a difference has gone viral among the Rotorua mountain biking community after an alleged bike thief was caught red-handed.

Tu and Tak Mutu's photo, showing themselves with a police officer talking to the alleged thief in the background, achieved almost 1900 likes on their Facebook page and reached almost 50,000 Facebook users.

On Sunday the Mountain Bike Rotorua owners saw a man riding what they believed was a bike that had been stolen from their Waipa hub the previous week. First they checked if anyone matching the description had rented a bike - they hadn't - so they decided to approach the man. After stopping him on the Te Ara Ahi cycleway they asked to look at the bike - and discovered they were right.

"Each bike we have has its own unique identifier, and our sticker was still on the top tube," Tak Mutu said. "We knew it was ours. Tu said 'that's our bike' and the serial number on the bottom would match the police report. The alleged thief started to walk away and Tu followed him on the bike, filming him as he walked."

Tak said he got back into his car, called police and drove to the other end of the cycleway to block the alleged thief's path. Once police arrived the Mutus took a selfie to capture the moment.

"The reaction we've had is unexpected," he said.

"We didn't expect it to go viral, we only expected 20 likes."

Yesterday the photo had been liked 1871 times, had received 115 comments and been shared 53 times. Tak said it had reached almost 50,000 people - the number of Facebook users who would have seen it.

Rotorua police said a man was due to appear in the Rotorua District Court on theft charges.

Watch a video Mountain Bike Rotorua made of the incident here.