Two in court after hijack of police car

Press, 17 November 1976, Page 6

Two in court after hijack of police car

PA Auckland I The ponce sought a remand tn custody when a man of 23 and a youth of 16 appeared in the Magistrate's Court at Otahuhu yesterday on two charges of burglary and one of car conversion — although several more senous charges will be laid against them. Their appearance was the aftermath of incidents m the early hours of the morning' when two police constables' and a civilian were held at I pistol point in a police car which had been hijacked at Ho wick bv two young men. The car was driven through Whitford, Maraetai. and | Cievedon to Papakura. where the abductors were over- i powered The man, ageu 23. Briar. Wilfred Cox. an unemployed; x acuum metaliser was I charged with breaking and entering the Whitford quarry at Whitford and Tairua Quarries. Ltd. at Whitianga. and with converting a car valued at $6870 With the youth of 16, who faced similar charges, he wasi remanded in custody \

I|vember 22. No pleas were! entered. 1 The incidents began when; I a Howick builder. Mr Bruce I Moxon. aged 30. reported : two men acting suspiciously > in a car near his Howick ! home at 2 a.m. Police patrols i went to the area and found > a stolen car. but did not locate the two men. Later. Mr Moxon called the ■ police again after hearing a ; noise, and Constables P. McGahan and A. Smith were : I sent in a patrol car. In Elliot Street, Howick, the two policemen and Mr Moxon were stopped by the i two men. who had been beI! hind a fence. One of the men was holding a pistol and the other a reel of fuse, one end iof which was obscured. The two men ordered them I j into a patrol car. one sitting beside Constable McGahan, I who is 19. in the front seat, and the other behind the constable, with the pistol against his head One of the constables was! able to put a Mayday call! over the patrol car’s radio! i before it was ripped out by I one of the abductors.

■' Other patrol cars were able to track the hijacked i.vehicle, and were quickly on : the scene when the two abductors were overpowered in Papakura, Constable Smith, who was in the rear seat, grabbed the pistol when the armed man’s attention was diverted. The two policemen and Mr Moxon then overpowered the two men in a struggle in the patrol car. The gas-operated pistol was later found to be unloaded. The police seized a stick |of gelignite from a car, [found in a street in Howick, I which had been stolen from [Pakuranga on Sunday night. Detective Senior-Sergeant T. O. Tozer praised the two constables and Mr Moxon for keeping cool and doing nothing to aggravate the situation until they saw a chance to get free. Mr Moxon, he said, had [done a “very good job” in j initially reporting suspicious [actions to the police, and ■helping the two constables in • the patrol car.