Stabbing incident tops crime
A stabbing, and smash and grab were two major incidents for Matamata police in the past fortnight.
Police responded to a party at a George St address, where a Matamata man received a superficial wound after being stabbed in the neck.
The offender, also from Matamata, was charged and is in custody.
Police also responded to a smash and grab from the Gull Service station on April 18.
The station was closed at the time.
Matamata police officer in charge Blair Hayde is praising the owner who had placed bollards in front of the shop.
These prevented the offenders from crashing a vehicle into the front window.
The offenders used a car jack to smash a window and grab cigarettes.
Gull owner David Scholtz said he was disappointed with the police response time.
He lives minutes away from the station and heard the alarms sound.
The offenders had fled by the time he arrived at the station.
He said the police responder told him ‘‘there was nothing they could do to help, as there was no one available to respond’’.
Scholtz claimed a police constable arrived at the scene 25 minutes after he placed the call.
Hayde said the average response time is seven minutes and he would always prefer to achieve that, or better every time.
He also said this highlighted a training issue at the call centre as there is always a patrol car on duty in East Waikato which supports the staff who are on call 24/7.
But he said 25 minutes is not indicative of the actual arrival time at an incident.
He said other processes go into responding to a call out not just rushing straight to a scene where the offenders are no longer present.
Burglaries have also kept police busy over the past two weeks.
Clothing was taken from clothes lines in both Hampton Terrace and College St. CCTV from one of the homes captured two juveniles.
An alarm scared off offenders trying to gain entry into a Burwood Rd address.
A brand new farm bike and farming equipment was stolen from Maisey Rd.
A back entrance of a cafe on Broadway was broken into. CCTV enabled police to identify two of the offenders, one was located and charged.
Police are hoping the community may be able to help identify a garden-ornament thief, or thieves.
In the past two weeks solar lights were taken from Findlater St, a bird bath was taken from Mannix Place and garden ornaments were taken from Ngaio St.