The police's new attitude to burglary - gotta catch 'em all - is paying off already, with a group of Pokémon hunters nabbing a suspect in Napier on Wednesday night.
The group of 25- to 30- year olds were using the Pokémon Go smartphone app when they heard a car alarm go off near the East Pier hotel. They then saw a man running past them seconds later wearing a horror mask.
Stephanie Coakley says the group realised he'd been trying to steal a car so they followed him in their van and pulled up next to him as he was getting into another car.
"The boys… just tackled him to the ground and told him 'that's it mate you're done'. Basically that was it. He begged all of us to let him go - 'I won't do it again' - and they were like 'too late mate, it's done, you're done, we're not letting you go' and yeah, then the police came and that was it."
Ms Coakley says the group are diehard Pokémon hunters.
"This is what we do, we just all group together and go and hunt during the day and then if we can we go out and hunt at night.
"We were all out on a hunt for the Dragonite… It's quite rare, it has times when it spawns, so we weren't able to actually catch it.
"We had a few laughs, like, Thievemon, Idiotmon. Saying we were catching the most rarest [sic]."
Senior Sergeant David Sutherland says it's a great catch.
"If it wasn't for this group of young people, then we would never have caught this guy. Well done to them, they were brave enough to hold him until our staff arrived and we thank them for a job well done.
"We want to have a police force which reflects the diversity of New Zealand and if we've got Pokémon hunters there, I don't see any problem with it."
The 28-year-old thief was arrested and will appear in the Napier District Court on September 7.
Newshub.
