School stranger reports taken seriously

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 506, 5 October 1993, Page 11

School stranger reports taken seriously

Waiouru Police File B y

constable

Chris Scales

• We have all been aware over the past two weeks that we may have a problem with a suspicious person following children home from school and have received reports of this person video taping the children. Unfortunately, when these incidents arose, we received numerous reports of strange vehicles and people, who have all seemed to fit the description of the

stranger. We really do not know what we are looking for. All the vehicles and occupants that have been reported to us over the past two weeks have been checked out and as yet we have not come up with anything sinister. The school areahas been well saturated before and after school with police, military police, school staff and plain

clothes police, patrolling around the area. We are confident that if we did have , a problem with someone l following the children home, we would have come across him by now. However, we are still treating the matter sbriously and we have kept school Turn to Page 12

Waiouru Police File

From Page 11 staff up to date. Pete Thomas and myself have been to the school and gi ven the children another talk about stranger danger and have made them all deputies, so we have hundreds of pairs of eyes out there. In the meantime, I ask parents to still keep an eye on the children, as you have all been doing the past couple of weeks, until we can either apprehend someone, or safely discount any threat to our kids. We will keep you informed. • A wor'd of warning about leaving vehicles unlocked. We have had two vehicles stolen from the township in the last week. Both have been recovered. We have also had a prob-

lem with stolen vehicles being dumped in the Waiouru area. Please report any strange vehicles you rriay see on the side of the road. • The Desert Road was closed for a short time last week after a one-car accident. The driver was flown to Palmerston Hospital with suspected back injuries but he appears to be OK now. Apart from that, the roads have been quiet the past two weeks. . • An expensi ve ruby and . diamond ring has been handed in to us. It was found in the women' s toilet at the RSA. We still have two bicycles in our possession. A blue men's 10-speed Morrison and a women' s Avanti bicycle.

• Last Friday ni ght/early Saturday morning, a burglary occurred in Ruanui Street, where over $2000 worth of stereo and TV were stolen. Around the same time, a vehicle was stolen from outside the Oasis. The stolen vehicle was located in Ohakune, not far from where another vehicle was stolen. We believe that these incidents are related and are following strong leads. If you have any further information about these offences, we would like to hear from you. • A new Constable has been appointed to Waiouru . He is from Greymouth and should be in Waiouru at the start of the year. • Have a safe week.