Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
A Christchurch man inadvertently turned himself in after calling police with a bizarre and convoluted tale of kidnapping and carjacking, police say.
About 5.30am on Tuesday the 36-year-old called police to report he was threatened at gunpoint and ordered to drive around the city by an unknown assailant who then stole his car.
Officers found the man on Chichester Street, in the suburb of Woolston.
"He told officers of being ordered to drive to several locations at gunpoint, swap keys for a BMW, and of then using that car to track his supposedly stolen Volkswagen to Davis Street, where he found it locked and abandoned," a spokesperson said.
"As officers tried to make sense of the story, they gave the 36-year-old a lift back to his home to pick up the spare car keys. Once the Volkswagen was unlocked, officers invoked the Search and Surveillance Act to check the offender hadn't left his firearm in the car."
The story soon unravelled as a search of the car uncovered a methamphetamine pipe, a bag of white crystals, a shotgun concealed in a bag, a pistol, a round of ammunition and an assortment of knives, batons and hatchets, police said.
The man was arrested as officers believed the man had conjured a fictitious story.
The man was facing a total eight charges, including making a false statement, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawfully carrying an imitation firearm, unlawful possession of a pistol, unlawful possession of ammunition; possession of utensils, possession of an offensive weapon and failing to carry out obligations in relation to a computer search, police said.
He was remanded in custody and would appear in the Christchurch District Court next month.
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