{"id":476081,"date":"2026-06-14T00:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T00:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/476081\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T00:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T00:19:12","slug":"palmerston-north-crash-leads-to-discovery-of-weapons-hidden-in-bushes-driver-armed-with-crossbow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/476081\/","title":{"rendered":"Palmerston North crash leads to discovery of weapons hidden in bushes, driver armed with crossbow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe man who had reportedly been driving was standing next to the vehicle, uninjured, reportedly holding a crossbow that was loaded and ready to fire \u2013 however, he dropped this immediately when challenged by officers,\u201d Manawat\u016b acting area commander Inspector Phil Ward said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe man was taken into custody, and a quick search of the vehicle and nearby vicinity found that he had allegedly been attempting to hide an arsenal of weapons in the bushes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"A crossbow and swords were among the weapons seized following an automatic crash alert in Palmerston North on Saturday. Photo \/ NZ Police\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>A crossbow and swords were among the weapons seized following an automatic crash alert in Palmerston North on Saturday. Photo \/ NZ Police<img  alt=\"Photo \/ NZ Police\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">Police said weapons seized included a stolen .22 rifle, an air rifle, four samurai swords in sheaths, a machete, a crossbow and arrows, a large hunting knife, and a large amount of ammunition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">A 22-year-old man is due in Palmerston North District Court next week facing a range of charges including driving with excess breath alcohol, careless driving, unlawfully possessing a firearm, possession of offensive weapons, and possession of a knife in public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe man who had reportedly been driving was standing next to the vehicle, uninjured, reportedly holding a crossbow&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7814,49537,143998,3549,239896,14647,2026,18089,19552,3011,538,78,8454,22055,22176,37829,36661,111,43,139,529,69,1118,6292,675,5034,2838,45709,239897,8229,61,6382,664,14191,1316,102],"class_list":["post-476081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-armed","tag-arsenal","tag-bushes","tag-crash","tag-crossbow","tag-discovered","tag-discovery","tag-dramatic","tag-driver","tag-four","tag-hidden","tag-in","tag-including","tag-leads","tag-loaded","tag-machete","tag-nearby","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-palmerston","tag-police","tag-response","tag-routine","tag-samurai","tag-swords","tag-they","tag-to","tag-took","tag-turn","tag-weapons","tag-when","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476081","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=476081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}