Driver Tasered after ‘intractable’ pursuit

A little orange tractor is safely back in its shed after a Northland couple gave chase down State Highway 1 early on Monday morning.

Starting in Kaiwaka, the 25-kilometre chase, which reached a maximum speed of 12 kilometres per hour, resulted in police Tasering the alleged tractor thief in Wellsford.

Local couple Pam and Mark Ottaway were tucked up in bed late on Sunday when the volunteer fire brigade siren inadvertently alerted them that someone was up to no good with the tractor belonging to Kaiwaka Sports Association.

‘‘I was watching one of the firemen go out and he braked heavily, then I heard this funny noise.

‘‘I looked out and it was the sports association tractor driving past,’’ Pam Ottaway said.

Mark Ottaway, who mows lawns for the association using the tractor, and Pam made a snap decision to pursue the 20kw Kubota B2710 tractor.

‘‘Are we going to chase it?’’ Pam said she asked Mark.

‘‘Yeah!’’ was the answer.

The south-bound State Highway 1 chase ‘‘went on all morning’’, Pam said.

‘‘Its top speed is only 12 Ks,’’ she laughed.

There was ample time to call police who joined the eventual 90-minute pursuit at Te Hana 3 kilometres north of Wellsford.

The alleged driver of the tractor had little choice but to take a leisurely approach in his attempts to evade the Ottaways and police.

‘‘He went into a rest area and stayed there a while and then came out, and then he started to go north.

‘‘Then he did a doughnut on the road at the passing lanes then went south again.’’

Police upped the ante, adding three police cars to the convoy, putting their sirens and lights on for the weaving tractor.

The tractor driver didn’t interact with his pursuers but did ‘‘throw his arms up in the air’’ every time a vehicle passed the tractor, Pam said.

At Wellsford the tractor mounted the footpath and police Tasered the driver, taking him into custody.

A police officer the couple spoke to said police had been going to spike the tractor before it went up on the kerb.

Rodney acting area commander Senior Sergeant Mike Rickards said police were forced to use a Taser when the alleged offender repeatedly resisted arrest.

The driver’s ‘‘very dangerous’’ actions had presented a ‘‘serious risk to other motorists’’, Rickards said.

He said a 15-year-old boy had been referred to the police youth aid section on a number of allegations in relation to the alleged theft and chase.

A friend trucked the tractor back to its shed in Kaiwaka, Pam Ottaway said.