Just let the thief go!

The Herald reports:

A Christchurch business owner and tradies who performed a citizen’s arrest, tackling a thief to the ground after he allegedly stole motorcycle parts, are disappointed at the police response.

When Mike Creedy stopped to visit the motorcycle store about 3pm Monday, four men were running after an alleged thief. Creedy tackled him to the ground and phoned police.

“The guy was running down the middle of the street with an armload of stuff. I took a couple more steps and stopped him,” Creedy told the Herald.

“He put up a big fight. I just had enough. I put him in a headlock, sort of tripped him backwards and put him on the ground on his back. That was enough for the four guys, one on each arm and one on each leg to actually hold him down,” Creedy said.

“He kept yelling, ‘if the police come I’m going to go back to prison’.”

But police told Creedy and his workmates to “let him go”.

“The police asked if he had any weapons and I said ‘not that I can see’. I’m disappointed in the police. We had the guy, he could have been prosecuted, but he got away scot-free.

“We just stepped back and let him go and he took off down the street,” Creedy said.

Is this how the Government is keeping the prison population down?

Why did the Police not say “Thank you, great work, we’ll have an officer there in ten minutes”

Christchurch Metro Area Commander Superintendent Lane Todd said police couldn’t attend every callout “due to the nature of police work”.

Todd said police had to prioritise cases where life or safety was at risk, and other calls at the time were more important.

How many Police were on traffic duty at the time?