Rocky start to night in the park

Shrieks of glee prompted a police investigation as an innocent childhood game got off to a rocky start.

Anxious residents near Blenheim’s Harling Park contacted police after hearing screams of children echoing in the dark.

Three officers promptly responded to the Saturday evening call out, only to discover what neighbours thought were screams of terror were simply shouts of joy from four children hiding glow-in-the-dark rocks.

Mother Nicky Hall says her and partner Bruce Moon’s children were having so much fun hiding the specially painted stones.

But she says she owed the officers an explanation when they turned-up to investigate the noise.

‘‘I had to explain that we were here to do the hiding of rocks,’’ she says, referring to the creative craze which has gripped Marlborough over recent months.

‘‘I found this glow-in-the-dark spray-paint at Bunnings and I thought we would take the kids out for an evening to hide rocks,’’ Hall says.

After showing their rocks to the police, she explained that her son, Zeck Deacon, who has an intellectual disability, was very excited and ‘‘doing a lot of the yelling.’’

She says despite the false alarm, the police officers were great with the children, telling them someone had been worried because of the noise they had been making.

They then took the time to show them some of their equipment and answer some of Zeck’s questions.

‘‘They got him to talk to the lady from the comms. They had a little chat saying that someone was really worried and that we shouldn’t do so much yelling.

‘‘It was very nice, very cute,’’ says Hall.

The family are members of social media’s Marlborough Rocks Facebook group. The craze sees people decorate rocks and hid them for others to find.

Late last year, Marlborough District Council banned the rock hiding practice in three different parks, fearing they would get flicked up by a lawnmower and hit someone, or a spark from a mower blade hitting a rock could start a fire.

But the new rules failed to dampen the fun.

Hall says the officers were delighted to see the children outside having fun and not sitting at home in front of the television.

‘‘We thanked them for doing their job and said we appreciated it,’’ she says.

Nobody was available from Blenheim Police Station to comment.

PHOTO: SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF Police were called to investigate after shouts were heard, from left, Jazmine Moon 10, Tyson Moon 8, Zeck Deacon 14, and Arwen Deacon 11 while hiding rocks.