A seemingly large spike in stolen vehicles passing through Thames in February turned out to not be a spike at all, rather one unreported plate repeatedly pinging the town’s ANPR cameras.
The Thames Automatic Number Plate Recognition Camera picked up 54 stolen vehicles or number plates travelling in and out of the town last month.
This was more than four times the amount captured at the same time last year – 13.
However, Thames Police Acting Sergeant Gareth Carter told The Profile the dramatic increase was likely due to one plate activating the camera multiple times a day.
“I think the reason why the stats are a bit skewed is because someone has had their plate stolen and it never got reported to us.
“They’ve probably woken up overnight and thought, ‘Oh, someone’s stolen our plates, the police are too busy, we’ll just go and get it sorted. So they’ve gone out to NZTA to get new plates… but now we’ve got two sets of the same plates out there.”
An ANPR camera was installed in Thames in late 2020 after calls from the business community, which had been struggling with ram raids and burglaries – most of which were committed using stolen vehicles.
With the camera installed, Thames Police can be alerted to a potential stolen vehicle within seconds.
“The ANPR cameras can be at a lot of places now, like petrol stations and stuff like that, especially around Auckland,” Sergeant Carter said. “So, if you went to Auckland for the day with an unreported stolen plate, it wouldn’t be uncommon to make 10 or more ANPRs, and you’re left wondering, ‘Why am I getting stopped all the time?’”
He believed the driver activating the ANPR camera last month lived out of town, and travelled to Thames for work.
He said this instance displayed the importance of replacing licence plates with “totally new numbers” if the originals had been nicked – as well as alerting police.
“If the plates have not been recovered, then police would strongly suggest replacing the numbers, and then that stops you getting stopped by police everywhere you go.
“We don’t [want to] go chasing and stopping victims. We want to only catch the offenders.”
In January, Thames’ ANPR camera caught 50 stolen vehicles or number plates – a jump from 26 in 2024.
BY KELLEY TANTAU
