{"id":319900,"date":"2026-03-09T01:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319900\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T01:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:29:09","slug":"two-16-year-olds-arrested-after-southland-op-shop-donation-leads-to-cannabis-weapon-and-4k-cash-haul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319900\/","title":{"rendered":"Two 16-year-olds arrested after Southland op shop \u2018donation\u2019 leads to cannabis, weapon and $4k cash haul"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cNothing unusual there. Donations are often left in that very spot for staff to sort through and tidy up for sale,\u201d said a spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, when the shop worker took the bag inside, they noticed that this particular donation had a distinctive pungent aroma. Once it was opened, it quickly emerged why.\u201d<\/p>\n
A number of bags of cannabis, as well as a large wad of cash, were visible inside.<\/p>\n
The worker immediately called the police.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this was happening, a pair of youths walked into the store, highly agitated, looking for a bag they\u2019d misplaced,\u201d said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n
More items of interest were found in the reluctant donors’ vehicle. Photo \/ Police<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, local police were extremely quick to respond, arriving on the scene to de-escalate the pair, who were becoming increasingly aggressive with shop staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The youths were detained under the Search and Surveillance Act and police discovered 43.2g of cannabis, scales, other ziplock bags and $3700 in cash in the bag. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs it transpired, the pair had left the bag out the front of the store while they waited for their car to be serviced at a workshop nearby,\u201d said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis led the attending staff straight to the vehicle for another search.<\/p>\n
\u201cInside they located an air pistol and a police scanner. There was also a further $810.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police found 43.2g of cannabis, scales, other ziplock bags and $3700 in cash in a bag left at a Southland op shop. Photo \/ Police<\/p>\n
A 16-year-old male and a 16-year-old female were arrested and taken to a police station.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quick and calm actions of the shop\u2019s staff allowed for a rapid response from the police and a great outcome in recovering drugs, a weapon, a scanner, and a total of $4510 from illegal activity,\u201d the spokesperson noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a bad day at the shop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNothing unusual there. Donations are often left in that very spot for staff to sort through and tidy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[173044,25160,74,95,9526,11924,17285,6932,26325,6259,29955,42,5511,22055,101,43,123635,1326,15488,20110,61,40,38,41,39,1237,7571,16963,12767],"class_list":["post-319900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-16yearolds","tag-4k","tag-after","tag-and","tag-another","tag-arrested","tag-cannabis","tag-cash","tag-donation","tag-door","tag-haul","tag-headlines","tag-just","tag-leads","tag-left","tag-news","tag-op","tag-shop","tag-southland","tag-thought","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-two","tag-volunteer","tag-weapon","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}