Getaway
A number of years ago in Wellington, we were working the night shift in plain clothes, driving one of our lovely old Toyota Corollas. Suffice to say, it wasn’t the most desirable choice of car - but it was good because it looked nothing like a police car.
A 111 call came in from a local hotel that a robbery was currently taking place. We did a quick drive by the hotel and then turned up a side street, as we had been informed that the offenders had just left.
As we slowed at the corner we saw a male standing there who vaguely fitted one of the descriptions. We were about to get out and talk to him, when all of a sudden he ran over to our car, opened the back door, jumped in and said, “Let’s get outta here before the police arrive!”
With that we knew we had our man and obviously he had been expecting to be picked up after the robbery. As he finished what he was saying the penny dropped, right about the same time he looked towards the front of the car and noticed the police radio. With the “kiddie locks” already on in the car - he had nowhere to go!
As you can imagine, a few choice expletives were expelled from his mouth - but hey, we had our guy!
The story doesn’t end there, though. Once back at the station he gave us false details, but let slip that he was from Lower Hutt. Having a new Sergeant on section who had just transferred from the Hutt, we asked him to have a look at the guy - and yep, sure enough he was a very well-known burglar. Once he’d been recognised, he got extremely agitated and put up a huge fight all the way to the cells!