Operational exercise

Taupo Times, Volume 20, Issue 1, 7 January 1971, Page 1

Operational exercise

The cunning of a prisoner on the run was no match for the professionalism of today's soldier when the two matched wits at Earthquake Gully on State Highway One, about 15 miles south of Taupo on Tuesday afternoon.

John Albert Winiata, who, along with three other prisoners escaped from the Tongariro Prison Farm on Sunday night, was sitting on the side of the road when he was spotted by Warrant Officer Tod Fraser, of Rotorua, who Was taking a group of 30 cadets to Waiouru by bus. To give the impression that the prisoner had not been noticed, Warrant Officer Fraser drove past and round the next corner before stopping the bus and unloading the cadets. In typical army style Winiata was out-manoeuvred and captured by Warrant Officer Fraser and the cadets. Winiata could not believe his luck. "I was the target in a set of army games and completely

out-manoeuvred," he said later. After capturing their quarry the officer and the cadets took him to the Turangi police station where they found that there was no-one on duty. A policeman's wit. let Warrant Officer Fraser into the station, from where he telephoned the Taupo police and told of the capture of the escaped prisoner. He was directed to where the cell keys were kept and the prisoner was locked in the cell. The other three prisoners who escaped with Winiata were recaptured earlier by the Turangi police in a bach on the western shores of Lake Taupo.