Three youths have been arrested in Invercargill after driving a potentially stolen vehicle and attempting to bait police into chasing them.
Police received reports of the teenagers allegedly driving in an "erratic manner" across the city on Wednesday morning.
"The driver of the vehicle was baiting police staff trying to encourage police to chase them and driving in an extremely dangerous manner all over the city," Southland Area Commander Inspector Mike Bowman said.
"Instead of pursuing the vehicle, police were able to monitor the progress and planned a safe intervention to bring the incident to an end."
When police found the vehicle, the driver attempted to escape but crashed shortly after, running away on foot.
"Staff quickly set up cordons in the area, and a dog team unit tracked and located youths."
Three 13 year olds were spoken to regarding six stolen vehicles in the region.
"This group are believed to be involved in similar offending in the Southland area over the past few months," Bowman said.
One teen appeared in the Invercargill Youth Court, and two others were referred to Youth Services. Another is yet to be spoken to.
"While resolutions like this are positive, we know they are cold comfort to the people who have been targeted and have lost their vehicles or had property damaged," Bowman said.
"Police and Victim Support will be providing ongoing support to the victims of this offending, and police are committed to identifying and apprehending those responsible.
"We hope this gives our community reassurance that we take this offending extremely seriously, and we will respond, investigate and work hard to bring offenders to account."
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