A police pursuit in Northland came to a literally shocking end on Monday morning, after authorities tasered a 15-year-old boy who stole a tractor.
The boy took police on an extremely low-speed chase as he drove the tractor from a property in Kaiwaka to the neighbouring town of Wellsford, 20 kilometres away.
Despite reportedly only reaching a maximum speed of 12km/h on the chase, the boy presented a "serious risk to other motorists" as he drove the farm vehicle down State Highway 1, police say.
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He'd stolen the tractor from the Kaiwaka Sports Association, Stuff reports, and even "did a doughnut" to evade the chasing police cars as he altered between heading north and south.
Acting area commander for Rodney, Senior Sergeant Mike Rickards, said the boy was "driving in a very dangerous manner", and refused to stop when police told him to.
Because he'd failed to comply with requests to pull the tractor over and had resisted arrest, police had just one option left: taser him.
After being shocked, the boy was taken into custody and has now been referred on to face a series of allegations.
The matter is now before Youth Aid Services, Snr Sgt Rickards says.
Newshub.
