Police are downplaying the significance (perhaps because it took so long for them to respond?) of an explosive device discovered in a car in Otahuhu at 5.30pm yesterday.

They cordoned off Princes St East in Otahuhu and evacuated around 50 homes in the Seaside Park-Brady Rd area after being told of a possible bomb in an abandoned car.

They’d known about the car for a couple of days after a resident, Kalli Murray reported it as being suspicious on Tuesday, but because it hadn’t been reported stolen they took no further action. The car had been parked up since Saturday.

The police are being very cagey about releasing much detail about the incident, or why it took them a couple of days to get round to treating the car seriously. They’re not saying who the car was registered to, or why they think it was left in a public area.

Christchurch Bomb Scare

In January the Christchurch district court was evacuated after a bomb threat was made

Wellington Bomb Scare

In March Willeston House in central Wellington was evacuated after a note and email containing a bomb threat was made, cordoned off roads caused major disruption until the site was cleared by bomb squad experts.

Auckland Bomb Scare

In April three banks in lower Auckland were closed after a bomb threat about a bomb in a non-specific ANZ bank was phoned in, sections of Queens Street were closed, causing disruption to the surrounding area.

Airline Bomb Threat

This is how New Zealand deals with people that cause major disruption through making bomb threats – it slaps them on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.  In May two teenage women who made multiple bomb threats to Singapore Airlines, pretending to be terrorists, were sentenced to three months of community detention with a 12 hour daily curfew, 200 hours of community work and 12 months’ supervision.

Isn’t it ironic that New Zealand was recently named as the most peaceful place to live, tangible things like car bombs won’t ever be allowed to shatter that carefully cultivated image, will they?