{"id":548890,"date":"2026-07-29T03:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/548890\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T03:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:13:11","slug":"search-for-man-running-from-police-widens-after-wanaka-sighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/548890\/","title":{"rendered":"Search for man running from police widens after W\u0101naka sighting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">The search for a man on the run from police has been expanded after he was recently sighted in W\u0101naka. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Jin Zhong, 38, was first wanted for fraud offending in May 2025. Almost a year later, he attracted another warrant for arrest after failing to appear in court. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">At the time, police said Zhong was avoiding efforts to apprehend him and was known to frequent the wider Auckland area.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/police-shared-several-cctv-images-of-a-man-they-believed-to-45Q77EOAKFFSNBQBHDR7O3KLV4.png\" alt=\"Police shared several CCTV images of a man they believed to be Jin Zhong. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" loading=\"eager\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Police shared several CCTV images of a man they believed to be Jin Zhong.  (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Today, the scope of that search had widened to the South Island. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;He was most recently sighted in W\u0101naka, while wearing a face mask and hoodie,&#8221; police said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Police shared three CCTV images that showed a man leaving a store with his face and eyes covered. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;If you have seen him or have any information that may assist in locating him, please update us online now or call 105,&#8221; police said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds, including a powerful quake hits Japan, Winston Peters lashes out at the Greens, and a shark bite caught on camera.  (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The search for a man on the run from police has been expanded after he was recently sighted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[67,1080,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-548890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-dunedin-otago","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548890","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=548890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}