Friday, 4 March 2022 - 2:13pm

Shhhhhh - Police at work

2 min read

News article photos (1 items)

Senior Constable Tony Sharp standing in front of a red police car. Photo: Highway Cops/TVNZ

​When Senior Constable Tony Sharp found a driver sleeping in a stolen car, he did everything needed to stop the man fleeing - without waking him up.

His quietly efficient work resulted in an arrest, the recovery of concealed weapons and the avoidance of a potentially risky fleeing driver incident.

Tony, of Central District Highway Patrol, was driving on State Highway 1 just north of Levin at around 9am on Saturday (26 Feb) when he spotted a red Volkswagen Golf parked with side lights on at the side of the road.

Thinking it was odd, he pulled in behind it and did the usual check. The vehicle’s plates belonged to a blue Golf.

Tony could see the driver asleep in the car. He made a quiet inspection and noticed the rego label – still visible despite a sheet hung inside the car for privacy – was from a red Golf which had been stolen in Wellington three weeks earlier.

Tony retrieved the spike strip from his vehicle and quietly deployed it. “I didn’t throw the spikes – I threw the rope end then extended it under the vehicle slowly and quietly, close to the back wheels.

“If he drove off he would definitely be spiked immediately.”

Support arrived from Levin and they boxed the Golf in, parking close to the front and rear. The driver woke up, got out keys in hand and was arrested for the theft of the vehicle.

Tony says the driver appeared to have been living in the vehicle. He searched the VW before it was towed and found a Reck .22 handgun wrapped in a T-shirt hidden in the rear tail light access panel, plus three knives and drug paraphernalia.

The finds justified the quiet and tactical approach, he says, and the time of day showed risks could arise at any hour.

Tony was not particularly surprised at what he found.

“It’s a matter of being diligent and looking a bit further," he says. "You don’t want to hand a vehicle back to its rightful owner to have them discover something like that.

“I was grateful for the assistance and hard work of the Levin officers who assisted and who showed great team spirit.” 

Superintendent Steve Greally, Director of Road Policing, praised Tony’s work as outstanding.

“This is a great example of thinking ahead and planning around what could have been a fleeing driver event, with all the risk that entails,” says Steve.

“Tony has thought carefully about the best way to apprehend this driver without creating unnecessary risk.”

The driver is facing a number of charges and is due to appear in court in the near future.