Trail of destruction
Fleeing driver wrecks cars, fences and garden
Elaine Llewellin was not long out of the shower when she heard a loud bang outside her house. She pulled back the curtains and was surprised to see a large fourwheel-drive ripping up her vegetable patch.
‘‘When I looked out the window I was looking straight at him screaming through the garden,’’ Llewellin said.
The Richmond resident was witnessing one of the final episodes in an extraordinary crime sequence. It began near the Nelson waterfront on Saturday morning and ended 16km away when a fleeing driver was fished out of a pond in Hope.
Police arrested a 23-year-old man after the spree, which involved the thefts of a bicycle, a van and two cars. He has been charged with unlawful taking, aggravated assault, robbery, threatening to kill, reckless driving, failing to stop and assault with a weapon.
Llewellin said the man crashed through a side fence into her Collins Rd property and drove through other fences, knocking down one around her swimming pool.
‘‘Where he came through the side fence, there is usually a truck parked there, but they shifted it on Friday afternoon.
‘‘I could just see him going through my house, that’s what I thought for a start, if he hadn’t turned.’’
The vehicle then swung around and headed down her driveway towards Collins Rd.
Llewellin said it was ‘‘incredible’’ that people weren’t hurt during the incident.
She said she went into shock afterwards. ‘‘The panic stuck in because my grandkids live two houses down the road.
‘‘It was just a nightmare unfolding.’’
Her backyard was a mess. The 4WD not only uprooted her vegetables but destroyed her camellia shrubs and best mandarin tree.
The saga began when a man was seen stealing a bicycle near Haven Rd, Nelson around 8am on Saturday.
A witness, who did not want to be named, followed the man in his work van. But when he confronted him, the man took his van before crashing it into a power pole near the Chapel Cafe about 8.10am. The van ended up on its side.
Another member of the public stopped to assist but the driver stole their vehicle, a black Toyota Prado 4WD.
The man failed to stop for police in Haven Rd, and a brief pursuit began. It was later abandoned for safety reasons.
Nelson man Jason Stack was driving home, waiting at the Salisbury Rd roundabout in Richmond, when he saw the bullbars of a black 4WD flying up behind him. ‘‘I knew he wasn’t going to stop,’’ he said.
Stack slammed his brakes on to prevent his car being pushed into oncoming traffic, but the
driver rammed him several times. ‘‘Then he realised he couldn’t get past me and he drove over the traffic islands.’’
Stack said the back of his car was ‘‘completely munted’’.
He said two other cars on Salisbury Rd were also hit by the fleeing vehicle. ‘‘He wasn’t going to stop for anything.’’
Stack said he made a formal statement to the police and had since been to the Nelson Hospital emergency department to get checked out.
‘‘After the adrenaline started wearing off, that is when my back started to hurt.
‘‘I’m just glad that they caught him.’’
Llewellin’s encounter with the man followed. She understood he had turned into industrial premises at Three Brothers Corner before crashing through her fence.
Information from members of the public led to the abandoned Prado being located in a paddock on Bateup Rd.
The man then stole another vehicle off Main Rd, Hope. Police found him in a pond off Paton Rd, and he was taken to Nelson Hospital with minor injuries. He is due to appear in the Nelson District Court today.