Malicious caller tries to spoil youth camp

Press, 27 March 1986, Page 3

Malicious caller tries to spoil youth camp

Malicious callers have been attempting to spoil a youth camp and a school trip to Germany.

A hoax caller abused the organisers of the “Pebblebrook” Christian youth camp yesterday, tried to cancel transport for the camp, and made known to the news media the camp’s location, which is kept secret for privacy and security reasons.

The caller tried to cancel five of the buses hired to take the expected 1400 young people from throughout the South Island to the camp site. The camp will begin tomorrow evening and continue during the Easter week-end. The man also telephoned Christchurch newspapers and radio stations, encouraging them to run reports about the camp, including its location.

,A camp organiser, Mr Graeme Woodside, of baptist Youth Ministries, said he had no idea who

the caller was. He felt angry about the attempt but thought the person must hold the’ camp in some esteem to try to spoil it. Security would be employed to watch the camp.

Another hoax call ruined a fund-raising auction in Kaiapoi at the week-end. The auction was to be held on Saturday to raise funds for a group of Kaiapoi High School pupils who hope to visit Germany later this year. The trip organiser, Mr Hank Bernards, had a call last Friday from someone claiming to represent the New Zealand Auctioneers’ Association. The caller threatened to stop the auction because it did not have a licensed auctioneer.

A complaint had been laid with the police about the call, said Mr Bernards.

The president of the Auctjfneers’ Association, Mr |?ent Prier, said last

evening that the caller was not known to the association.

Mr Bernards said: committee members had had anonymous telephone calls during the week from someone who decried the trip because of Germany’s actions in World War 11.

“The parents decided they could not take the risk and we proceeded with a garage sale without the auction. We did not make much money, and it was quite a let-down,” he said.

Mr Bernards, who will accompany the . eight pupils on their 10-week visit to Germany in November, said he could not understand the caller’s anti-German sentiments. He said he had been put into a Nazi labour camp during the war but held no grudge against another generation of Germans and .was looking forward tofcthe trip. f