{"id":378419,"date":"2026-04-14T04:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378419\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T04:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:33:17","slug":"auckland-man-accused-of-pointing-laser-at-police-helicopter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378419\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland man accused of pointing laser at police helicopter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Police<\/p>\n

\nThe Police Eagle helicopter.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ NZ Police\n<\/p>\n

An Auckland man faces up to 14 years in prison after allegedly shining a laser at the police’s Eagle helicopter.<\/p>\n

The incident happened in Glen Eden at about 2.35am.<\/p>\n

The laser shone directly into the cockpit, Senior Sergeant Garry Larsen said, subjecting the crew to glare and “flash blindness”.<\/p>\n

“Our onboard technology was able to clearly capture the alleged offender in the act, and instantly identified their address.<\/p>\n

“Police ground units arrived quickly and took a 50-year-old man into custody without incident.”<\/p>\n

He will appear in court next Monday, charged with endangering transport<\/p>\n

“This offence carries a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment, recognising the terrible consequences that could occur after lasering any aircraft,” Larsen said.<\/p>\n

“The Police Eagle helicopter is out there working hard for the protection and safety of our community and this type of behaviour is unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Police Eagle helicopter. Photo: Supplied \/ NZ Police An Auckland man faces up to 14 years in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-378419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378419","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=378419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}