“It was quite the unexpected find,” Armstrong said.
“Our team is extremely pleased to be able to remove these items from our community and hold this offender to account.”
The 30-year-old will appear in the Kaikohe District Court on January 20 on charges including personating a police officer, unlawful possession of a restricted weapon, driving while disqualified and possession of methamphetamine.
It comes on the same week that police revealed they had caught a drunk man who tried to pull over an unmarked car of actual police officers.
Counties Manukau Police said the “bizarre incident” occurred while officers were conducting patrols in an unmarked vehicle in the area on Saturday.
A station wagon following the unmarked car began flashing a red-and-blue bar mounted on the vehicle.
Police said officers were “perplexed” before clocking the car as not an actual officer.
The real officers managed to pull over the man after he attempted to flee, who they said exhibited “impaired and dangerous driving”, coming in at twice the legal limit.
The 38-year-old man will appear in the Manukau District Court on December 24 on charges of impersonating a police officer and excess breath alcohol.