About an hour later, police sighted the Porsche near Morrinsville and a tactical approach to stop the vehicle was put into action.
“Cordons were put in place around the area and the Eagle helicopter was deployed to observe the vehicle’s movements,” said Loughrin.
“Police managed the traffic to mitigate risk to motorists and deployed road spikes which resulted in the vehicle coming to a stop near the Taupiri Expressway on-ramp.
“The offenders then fled the scene on foot however, they were taken into custody a short time later.”
The incident occurred across the northern Hamilton and Taupiri area.
The three men, aged 31, 36 and 30, have been charged with a number of dishonesty and driving-related offences, and are due to appear in the Hamilton District Court tomorrow.
The vehicle Jenny Pham was travelling in was one of the first cars to be stopped by police on the motorway.
She said the police told them that a car was driving on the opposite side of the road towards them.
”Because our car was just the second one after the police car, the police said we needed to move out of the car and walk on the side because they didn’t know if the car was going to hit our car,” she said.
“But then the car drove along the side of the motorway.
”It was so scary.”
Pham was live streaming the incident and the footage shows the moment she and others had to run back on to the road and across the median strip as the car evading police drove alongside the motorway.
She said she saw three men get out of the car – two of them ran towards the bush while the third was arrested in a nearby paddock.
She said the police were armed and there were dog units on the scene.
A motorist travelling south along the motorway said they and a line of traffic were stopped by police around 9.40am near Ngaruawahia
“[The] police stopped us... they said there’s a car coming this way so just stop because we need to put out the spike to stop this car,” they said.
“The car slowed down and then went off the road, on to the grass and missed the spikes.”
The person said the car eventually drove back on to the highway from the opposite side of the road.
They could see the police eagle helicopter circling above.
The vehicle is believed to be a grey Porsche. Police have been approached for comment.
Lee Garrett said the car was travelling on the opposite side of the motorway for sometime before being stopped by the Taupiri off-ramp.
He saw police take four people into custody.
He said they were all males and looked to be middle-aged.
Garrett said traffic was stopped by police for about 10 minutes as the wild scenes unfolded.
More to come.
