Three people have been arrested after police officers were kept busy by a string of burglaries across Auckland overnight.
In the first incident, officers saw a vehicle speeding in Royal Oak just after 2am and failed to stop - before being spiked a short time later.
Det Insp Chris Barry, of Auckland City, said in a statement that investigations determined the vehicle was linked to an earlier burglary from a shop in Ellerslie.
A large amount of merchandise was recovered at the scene, Barry said.
He said a 45-year-old man was arrested and was due to appear in the Auckland District Court on Thursday, facing charges of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and burglary.
That was just one of a number of other burglaries in Auckland overnight. That incident came less than half an hour before a reported theft on Great South Rd in Penrose - where two people were allegedly stealing scrap metal.
"Both people, a 38-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man, are due to appear in the Manukau District Court today, both charged with burglary," Barry said on Thursday afternoon.
At 3:05am, officers were called to an attempted raim-raid Ōrākei but the offenders failed to gain entry to the store and fled in a second vehicle.
Police said that at a short time later, at 3:45am, a block of three retail addresses was then burgled on West Tamaki Rd, St Heliers.
"All three addresses have had their doors broken into and property stolen and the offenders have left in a vehicle," police said in a statement.
"About 30 minutes later, at 4:30am, a vehicle was used to gain entry into a hospitality address on Turua St, St Heliers."
It's understood the offenders stole a till and fled the scene, police said.
Work was underway to establish whether any of the incidents were linked.
"While no arrests have yet been made, we want to reassure the public our staff are working extremely hard to identify these offenders," police said, adding there was "absolutely no tolerance for this type of offending against our local business owners and we work hard to hold to account those responsible".
Anyone with information about any of these incidents was urged to contact the police on 105, quoting file number 220804/3797.
In other incidents overnight earlier reported by Newshub, a jewellery and liquor store were also hit by burglars; Michael Hill Jeweller in Takapuna and Tamaki Liquor in Mission Bay.
