A Wellington man had to put out a burning Lime Scooter with his water bottle after it caught fire.
Sam Jefferies was walking his dog about 10am on Wednesday in Petone, Wellington when he heard "a loud bang come from around the corner which scared me and my dog".
"I went over to investigate and saw the Lime Scooter up in flames as if the battery caught fire," Jefferies told Newshub.
"There was a bit of black smoke but nothing too crazy. I ran over as it was close to the bushes and poured water on it to put out the fire."
He also moved the charred scooter away from the bushes after extinguishing the blaze.
But now he's concerned about the maintenance on the popular rides.
"I'm honestly surprised these Lime's are still on the street as I'm concerned how their operations are maintaining them. Lots have missing parts, broken kickstands etc.
"I regularly walk this route and always pick up scooters that are left lying around or in the way. I think Lime has just dumped these here and aren't taking care of them properly."
A spokesperson for Lime told Newshub it had investigated the incident, finding that "it appears that this vehicle was tampered with".
"We will continue our investigation to determine the exact cause," the spokesperson added.
Looking at this scooter's record, Lime said its last trip ended without incident at 8:14pm on Monday.
"There was no attempt to ride this vehicle after the last trip on Monday evening; the vehicle went offline late in the evening of Tuesday 4 June, which we believe was due to vandalism," the spokesperson said.
"Safety is our top priority at Lime, which is why we regularly inspect all our vehicles and immediately remove damaged vehicles from service for repairs as soon as they are discovered."
The scooter had been picked up by Lime's operations team on Wednesday.
Jefferies said he phoned Lime after the incident and was told someone would be back in touch.
However, Lime said it had not received any customer complaints or reports of the incident through its customer service channels.
