Tairua Telephone Box/ATM Destroyed in Attempted Robbery
Written by John Grant on July 22, 2023
The iconic old red telephone box on the main street of Tairua was the subject of a ram-raid style robbery last night.
Photo showing the red telephone box before last nights ram raid.
Sometime overnight a car has smashed and destroyed the telephone box that once stood proud on Tairua’s main street. Locals have been expressing there feelings on the local Tairua Chit Chat page with many showing absolute disgust that something like this could happen in their place in paradise. Jen commented “This is a Joke right?” and Shirley saying “the crime in NZ is appalling and scary. Every day now…we are just getting conditioned to it. How can it be stopped?”.
Police have told CFM that they responded to reports of a Theft of an ATM from a phone box on Main Road around 3:30am. A vehicle was used to gain access, and take the ATM. Police are following lines of enquiry into the incident.
A measure on increased crime is the change in what is described as victimisations. In the Waikato this is up 20.4% in the period 2021-2022 compared with 2017-2019. The Waikato and Coromandel have some of the highest rates of victimisation in New Zealand.
Leading the statistics is Theft and related offences that across New Zealand are up 25.2%.
This follows the recent ram-raid with 5 vehicles causing thousands of dollars damage to Goldfields Mall on 5 July when large amount of property from several shops was taken. No arrests in that case have yet been made.
