Minister makes an arrest

I wonder if a Minister of the Crown has ever arrested someone before? Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

Courts Minister and former detective Chester Borrows has been brushing off his old skills, performing a “citizen’s arrest” and turning in a hitch-hiker who allegedly stole his cellphone.

Mr Borrows said he had given a lift to the young man on Monday.

“You do someone a good turn … It was no real big deal. I picked up this hitch-hiker  it was pouring with rain, so I thought, pick him up, give him a lift,” said Mr Borrows, a former detective sergeant.

“And then when he jumped out of the car I noticed my cellphone had gone for a walk. As you can imagine it’s full of highly confidential addresses and stuff. So I hooked him back to give him a bit of a speaking to.

“He denied having it and he did a bit of a bag search and didn’t find it. Then he mysteriously needed to go around the back of the building to relieve himself. I then went around there and found that he had dropped the thing under some iron behind the building so I grabbed the cellphone and grabbed him and marched him around the corner to the cop shop.”

By coincidence it was the police station in Patea where Mr Borrows had served a stint.

Good on Chester for both picking up a hitchhiker, and for nabbing him when he turned out to be a thief.