New Zealand Police have released CCTV footage believed to show a fugitive father who has been on the run with his three children within the distant wilderness for practically 4 years.
Thomas Callam Phillips has been hiding his children Jayda, Maverick and Ember, within the dense New Zealand bush after taking them from their house in Marokopa on the North Island in December 2021.
The potential sighting comes after Phillips’ relations final week urged the father to come home.
On Friday police released the clip displaying two masked people loading groceries into containers on a quadbike outdoors a retail retailer 35 miles away within the small city of Piopio. The incident happened at round 2 a.m. on Wednesday, shortly earlier than the shop was burgled.
New CCTV believed to show fugitive father who has spent years with his three children within the wilderness
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The store proprietor, who didn’t need to be named, instructed NCS affiliate RNZ milk was the one factor that was taken regardless of greens and butter additionally being on show.
He mentioned two folks used an angle grinder to reduce the padlock on his retailer’s out of doors chiller, triggering the alarm, and the pair grabbed some milk earlier than fleeing on a quad bike.
”They turned down the chance to take butter, cheese and greens additionally saved within the chiller,” he added.
Officers are investigating the CCTV for any connection to Phillips and the shop is one he’s believed to have focused, unsuccessfully, in November 2023, Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders mentioned.
“We believe the pair in this footage are Tom and one of his children,” Saunders mentioned.
“They were in the area for 13 minutes, having traveled in and out on a quadbike,” he added.
Police imagine Phillips and his children live off-grid, with the father utilizing his survival abilities to feed, shelter and dress his children. They additionally imagine supporters are serving to him to stay at massive.
Speaking to native media on Friday morning, Saunders mentioned the break-in could possibly be an indication Phillips was not getting the assistance he had been.
“Does it mean he’s potentially had a falling out with who’s helping him? Or is he just that brazen and confident that he’s quite happy to come out at night and commit a burglary?” he mentioned, as reported by RNZ.
Last June police supplied a reward of 80,000 New Zealand {dollars} ($52,000) for info main to their location and secure return.
Phillips’ collection of alleged crimes consists of the armed theft of a financial institution in May 2023, when two folks had been seen on closed circuit tv escaping on a bike with money.
Phillips already faces a spread of prices together with aggravated theft, aggravated wounding, and illegal possession of a firearm.
In her first interview since Phillips disappeared, his sister Rozzi Phillips instructed New Zealand journalist Paddy Gower how a lot the household misses him and needs him to return.
“I miss you, and I miss being part of your life,” she mentioned, her voice breaking. “You’re very special to me… I really want to see you again.”
Rozzi Phillips, who instructed Gower that she had had no contact with her brother since he disappeared, additionally learn out a handwritten letter from their mom to her lacking son.
“It hurts every time I see photos of the children and of you and see some of your stuff that is still here, thinking what could have been if you had not gone away,” the letter mentioned, in accordance to New Zealand information web site Stuff.
“Jayda, Maverick, Ember, I love you so much and really miss being part of your lives every day I wake up, and hope that today will be the day that you will come,” it continued.
In November 2023, Phillips and an unnamed little one are additionally alleged to have smashed the window of a store at 2 a.m., earlier than fleeing on a stolen quad bike. Phillips has additionally been seen on CCTV, with his face coated, shopping for provides in a ironmongery store.
Last 12 months, the children’s mom, who recognized herself as Cat, made an emotional attraction to anybody with info on her children’s whereabouts to name the police.
“I’m standing here before you today, begging you for your help to bring my babies home,” she mentioned in a video posted to Facebook. “They are just innocent children.”
Of Jayda, she mentioned, “She will be a young woman now, and she needs her mother.”
“Ember is asthmatic, as am I, and she needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land. And I can only imagine how Maverick is coping,” she added.
“What Thomas is doing is not okay,” she mentioned. “None of this is okay. My babies deserve better.”
In his assertion on Friday, Detective Senior Sergeant Saunders added: “At the heart of this are three children who have been away from their home for four years. Their wellbeing is our main focus.”