Boy detectives help uncover cannabis cache

Press, 4 August 1977, Page 6

Boy detectives help uncover cannabis cache

PA Auckland Two Heme Bay boys found themselves involved in a reallife adventure yesterday when they led a detective in search of a cache of marijuana hidden in bush at the end of the Jervois Road extension.

It all began w*hen boys plaving in the reserve found a heap of cigar-shaped objects covered in silver paper and hidden in an old pipe . u a One of them took a handful home and showed them to his mother, who telephoned the police. Detective N. S. Morris, of the Auckland crime squad, was sent to investigate. The boy who took the objects home and his school friend acted as scouts for the policeman. As the detective and his two companions, both aged 10, crept through the steeply sloping bush area, they heard a noise and saw a man bending over and picking something off the ground. The detective whispered to one of the boys to call the

police for help while he and the other boy kept watch The messenger scuttled back to Jervois Road where the policeman’s car was packed and. picking up the radio microphone, called out in a piping voice, “a detective wants help.” The effect was electric The boyish voice crackled through loudspeakers in the operations room at the Auckland Central Police Station and out of the radios in patrol cars throughout the cityAfter confusion over who wanted help, where, and why, Detective Morris got his back-up, which included a dog patrol, detectives, and uniformed police. About this time. Detective Morris intercepted a man leaving a house in the Jervois Road extension carrying some of the cigar-shaped objects. A search of the bush later revealed scores of the objects, which were believed to be “deals” of marijuana wrapped up in silver paper. Late last evening, detectives were interviewing two men in connection with the find.