Towing the thin blue line – the chronicles of a police car stuck on the beach

Oreti Beach may not be Vegas, but the Invercargill coast was definitely subject to a wild ride on Friday night, when a police car, replete with firearms and radios, ended up submerged in its sand across the long wide shores.

Over the years, the beloved local beach has been subject to many an activity that it did not sign up for: from cars being stolen and burnt to car dumping to boy racing, it has been a wild ride for the landform.

However, this time, the car did go too far.

A witness said that they found the car at the “very south end, pretty much right at the mouth of the estuary” but were not too sure why the police officer had driven out there.

Southland area commander inspector Mike Bowman said “staff were attending a report of a disorder on the beach involving vehicles” just before 11.30pm.

While police staff removed the radios and firearms, among other equipment, from the 2021 white Skoda Superb, a local tow company was only able to remove the car on Sunday morning because it was “engulfed in a tide” Bowman said.

Bowman said “the nature of police work means our people do on occasion have to drive on beaches and in other challenging environments.

“These are operational vehicles and a certain amount of damage to the overall fleet is expected.

“The vehicle, a Skoda, has been written off.

“As a matter of course, we will be reviewing what happened.”

In Bowman’s initial response he said “an officer was responding to an incident” when the car got stuck.

However, when he was asked to clarify how many staff were involved, Bowman said “I am unable to confirm how many staff as that is operational and the cost of the vehicles is commercially sensitive”.

Police vehicles stuck elsewhere:

In April last year, police got themselves into an embarrassing predicament on the newly opened Transmission Gully motorway in Wellington.

A police car become stranded in a gravel arrestor pit used to slow down runaway vehicles on a steep section of the road on the day that it opened.

In the same week, a patrol car got stuck on a metal bollard with its rear end hanging in the air on the motorway.