Patient police collar child driver

It was a police chase of a rather unexpected kind after a 12- year- old boy drove about 100km in the middle of the night after taking a car from his caregiver.

Police, wary of spooking the young driver, followed the car at a distance but the Whangarei boy’s escapade eventually came to an end near Puhoi after road spikes were laid.

A police spokesman said the boy took the car from his caregivers shortly after midnight on Thursday.

The car was then spotted south of Whangarei about 2am.

“Although the car was not driving at high speed, the driver was obviously struggling to stay within the right lane — an indication of the driver’s inexperience behind the wheel.”

Police, knowing the driver was only 12, followed the car without attempting to stop him.

They made that decision based on a lack of other vehicles on the road at that time of night, concerns about the driver’s inexperience and the risk that could pose to other drivers, police said.

Near Warkworth, police signalled to the driver to stop, but the 12- yearold kept going.

However, North Shore police travelled to Puhoi and laid road spikes there, which punctured the tyres, and the car came to a stop shortly afterwards on Waiwera Hill, about 115km from Whangarei. The boy was taken into custody and referred to Youth Aid and Oranga Tamariki.

“This i s a good example of cool heads and reasoned decision- making in action,” Inspector Kai Shao said.

“The staff managing this incident had a wide range of factors to take into account, not only with the driver and the incident unfolding, but also the difficulties officers can face working across two different districts and the logistics that involves.

“The spikes were set up in a safe area to ensure members of the public were not at risk and excellent communication between staff meant all knew where they had to be in order to take action.”