Two Auckland cell phone towers were set on fire early Friday morning in suspicious circumstances.
Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers said police attended a fire in Ōtāhuhu after a resident noticed smoke around Todd Place around 2:28am.
He says they were also called to another incident on Savill Drive, Favona at 3:45am.
"Scene examinations have been conducted at both sites and we are treating these as suspicious," he says.
"Our enquiries are ongoing into both incidents and we are treating these matters seriously."
This comes after a series of arson attacks on cell towers around New Zealand during New Zealand's lockdown which could be due to a conspiracy theory the COVID-19 pandemic is caused by 5G wireless technology.
The theory is that 5G either weakens the immune system so people are more likely to catch COVID-19 or that COVID-19 actually doesn't exist and the pandemic is a vast cover-up to hide the effects of 5G.
The theory went viral in early April leading to people around the world setting towers on fire to prevent "further spread".
Jacinda Ardern condemned the conspiracy theory on April 8 which had been promoted online by celebrities including Keri Hilson and Woody Harrelson.
"That is not true," Ardern said.
"I can't state it clearly enough. I almost hesitate to speak to it on this platform - it is just not true."
But New Zelanders have continued to set fire to cell towers, likely due to the theory, including one on Thursday which caused an outage for Spark customers.
"Spark has been working with police about threats made to some of our cell sites, as well as some instances of arson," a spokesperson told Newshub.
"Generally damage has been fairly negligible, but this is the second event which has caused an outage in the surrounding area. The incidents have all been reported to the police who are investigating, and we are working to monitor the sites and protect our people."
Residents in Porirua were also affected in early April when police located a blaze at a Kordia transmission site at Baxter's Knob.
