Cockies outwit teen crims

A couple of cockies have outwitted a pair of fugitive teens who were trying to outrun the law.

In a sly move, the man and his pregnant partner tricked the teenage crims into a ride before delivering them up to police on a ‘‘silver platter’’.

‘‘These two really had no idea, by the time they realised what was going on, they were in handcuffs,’’ the 32-year-old farmer said yesterday.

The man, who didn’t want to be named for fear of retribution, was with his partner relief milking on a farm off Harbottle Rd, near Morrinsville, on Monday afternoon when police turned up informing them a couple of crooks were on the run.

A 16-year-old male and 17-year-old female allegedly fled a burglary in a car stolen from a Silverdale home, leading police on a chase from the university suburb through the rural outskirts of Hamilton towards Morrinsville.

At the old abandoned Motumaoho gas station, behind some hydroponic growing sheds, the pair dumped the car, making a run for the fields.

Hot on their trail was Sergeant Mark Sandford, Waikato police dog team supervisor, and his two-and-a-half-yearold canine Valko.

‘‘I tracked them from there, over the fence, down across the creek, into a paddock out onto a race where I came across a couple of farmers who had gone for a walk to have a bit of a squiz, as they knew we were looking for them,’’ Sandford said.

Responding officers had already set up cordons, knocking on farmhouse doors to inform locals of the trouble, he said.

In the searing sun, Sandford and Valko legged it several hundred metres across the pastures and through a creek up to his neck in water.

‘‘With the dog climbing all over me as well, it was wet and hot.’’

As Sandford tracked the pair, the farming couple decided to knock off for the day. They’d seen the police cars stationed at the end of the road and turned left for Tamahere.

About a kilometre from SH26 they came across two ‘‘frantic-looking’’ youngsters with their knees covered in mud.

‘‘Instantly, we looked at each other, and knew exactly what to do. We decided in that moment that we were going to pick them up.’’

Knowing there was a police cordon nearby, the 32-year-old decided it was safe enough to risk the ride.

They asked to be taken to Hamilton. ‘‘No problem, get in,’’ was his reply.

‘‘They were in such a frenzy to get away from the police they were willing to get into any car.

‘‘She proceeded to tell us some bull .... story about how they’d been abandoned by a friend and needed to be dropped to Hamilton. We knew we had the right people.’’

When the man turned the car around, the pair didn’t flinch.

They sat in a state of anxious shock, seatbelts on in the back seat.

It wasn’t until the foursome reached the stationed police cordon, the male in the back began to squirm, he said.

‘‘I pulled up next to the police and saw the guy I had been speaking to earlier.’’

Unaware, the officer asked him if he’d heard or seen anything.

‘‘I looked at him, winked and nodded my head to the back seat.’’

He said the pair appeared completely shocked, unaware they had been ‘‘tricked’’.

They were arrested and taken into custody to appear in court at a later date.