Queenstown police have offered their support to counterparts in the United States, searching for two flags stolen from a town in Wyoming last month.
Detective Sergeant Grahame Bartlett, of Queenstown, said he had been in contact with the Jackson Police Department yesterday, offering to help find two men who are possibly in the resort who were captured on surveillance camera scaling flag poles and removing the two flags.
Det Sgt Bartlett said both flags, one a United States flag and the other a Wyoming flag, were flying at half-mast outside the Jackson Courthouse on March 20, in honour and memory of a serviceman from Evanston, Wyoming, killed during a military operation in Baghdad on March 10.
He said cameras mounted at the top of the flagpoles showed the men removing the flags and in an attempt to get the flags back, the Jackson Police Department posted the footage on YouTube.
"A flood of people rang up and named [the men] and [told police] they had gone to Queenstown, New Zealand.''
An article in yesterday's New Zealand Herald identified the men as Daniel Jones and Tom Knapp. Det Sgt Bartlett said the Jackson police had since made a number of phone inquiries to track down the men and now the Queenstown police had joined forces.
"At this stage, we're trying to establish whether, in fact, the two people have come to New Zealand... we're not too sure yet. There was some suggestion they might be Queenstown residents, but they appear to be British people who have travelled to New Zealand on a number of occasions and have been to Queenstown.
"Our initial investigations suggest that one of them may be in New Zealand and possibly in Queenstown.''
However, Det Sgt Bartlett stressed while the incident had "blown up'' in the United States, the focus of police was to return the flags to Jackson.
"In Jackson, it's considered a misdemeanor, quite a minor crime. What they want to do is just get the flags back... and one would hopefully expect some sort of apology. There's a high probability the people didn't realise the significance of the flags. We would expect when they realise what significance there was, they'll return them".
Det Sgt Bartlett said the Queenstown police were not interested in charging the pair, but would hope they would contact the police or make arrangements for the flags' return.
