{"id":593636,"date":"2026-09-08T06:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593636\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T06:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:38:11","slug":"christchurch-playground-small-improvised-explosive-device-found-at-larch-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593636\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch playground: Small improvised explosive device found at Larch Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cAnyone who discovers a potentially dangerous item should always exercise caution until the item is deemed safe by an expert. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you do discover something that might be dangerous, remain clear of the item and contact New Zealand Police as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Hawker, who made the discovery, said he was metal-detecting when he saw a small metal cartridge with a wick sticking out and a lighter placed next to it.<\/p>\n
The cartridge and lighter were placed near the playground. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Hawker said he initially thought it was rubbish.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I picked it up, [I] saw it had a wick coming out of it and something like cotton stuffing into the wick,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Hawker said he immediately contacted the police to inform them of his discovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very weird for someone to do that in such a quiet park,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been detecting for three years now, and I\u2019ve visited hundreds of parks and playgrounds, and you never see anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Hawker found the item propped up next to a lighter at a children\u2019s playground in Casebrook. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
Hawker said the discovery made him \u201creally angry\u201d, particularly as it was at a playground where children frequent. <\/p>\n
\u201c[It] made me really angry, obviously, that someone would want to harm anyone, but deliberately putting kids in harm is just evil, really.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAnyone who discovers a potentially dangerous item should always exercise caution until the item is deemed safe by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1975,1558,4487,6181,1403,292658,8696,36876,5760,1874,42,292657,35420,43,34522,10665,4499,40,38,41,39,80],"class_list":["post-593636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-at","tag-been","tag-christchurch","tag-collected","tag-defence","tag-detectorist","tag-device","tag-explosive","tag-force","tag-found","tag-headlines","tag-improvised","tag-larch","tag-news","tag-playground","tag-reserve","tag-small","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593636","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=593636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}