A joyride turned into a chapter of errors for two teenagers who crashed a stolen car near Outram last night and then led police on a foot chase that resulted in one being swept down a waterway.
Mosgiel police were contacted by a man reporting a crashed car at Outram Glen. He had earlier walked past two young men, one covered in blood, on a nearby track.
Constable Jason Braid, of Mosgiel, said police went to the scene and after checking the vehicle's registration details, found the car belonged to a Mosgiel man who was in Invercargill and unaware his car was not at his house.
Shortly after 6pm, a dog unit from Dunedin was brought in to track along the Lee Stream Walk, and two people with a jet-boat also assisted police in the search, he said.
After several kilometres, the dog handler caught up with the young men "who saw him coming and crossed the river", but found themselves stuck under a cliff.
After giving their names and details to the dog handler, one of the men decided to swim back but was swept downstream nearly 100m before clinging on to a branch and pulling himself to safety.
"The dog handler was getting his gear off ready to swim after him and it was just lucky he was able to grab hold of a branch," Const Braid said.
One of the men had cuts to his hands but "it looked like the blood was coming out of everywhere", he said.
The jet-boat was then used to ferry the pair back to Outram Glen and into police custody.
• Two Mosgiel teenagers, aged 17 and 18, have been charged with unlawful taking.
They will appear in the Dunedin District Court on Tuesday.
