Four youths have been arrested following a crime spree across Te Awamutu, Cambridge and Hamilton – and police are now searching for six others who fired shots at them in Hamilton.,
The teenagers – 19, 18, 17 and 15, – face charged of burglary following the Waipā incidents.
Police said they responded to a report of a ram-raid style burglary in Sandwich Road, Hamilton, at 1.53am on Monday, a burglary in Duke Street, Cambridge reported at 3.49am and a burglary in Sloane Street, Te Awamutu, reported at 4.42am.
The youths involved in the Sloane St incidents were caught in the Bader Street area in Hamilton – where the shots were fired.
Police were “throwing the kitchen sink” at finding the six before Christmas Bird said.
The News reported last week Te Awamutu retailers and the Waipā District Council were investing in CCTV cameras and a coordinated effort was underway to provide protection to Alexandra retailers from ram raids.
Susan O’Regan
Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan called those responsible “children of the meth generation”.
Former Hamilton deputy mayor Geoff Taylor was less charitable, saying it appeared Bird has just worked out what the rest of the country has known for a year.
“And I’m a little tired of hearing people talk about “the root causes of youth offending”. We are a country of excuses. The root cause is that they’re little shits and the solution is they need to go to jail.”
