BMX riders quit

Photo: SHANE WENZLICK

WHERE ARE MY WHEELS?: Eight-year-old Nathan Scott’s BMX bike was stolen just before his big race on the Red Hill track. His dad Brian says the club’s had enough of the constant problems – it’s moving out.

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Sticks and stones might break bones but they can also make a club give up a $1 million facility.

Papakura BMX Club members are so sick of the constant break-ins, vandalism, thefts and standover tactics at their Red Hill track they’ve decided it’s time to shut up shop and move on.

President Brian Scott says the club has thought about shifting for some time but the final straw came last week when his eight-year-old son’s $1000 bike was stolen and a group of eight to 11-year-olds threatened to kill him.

The club was hosting a big meet when three teenagers turned up and started throwing stones at elite riders and swearing at a four-year-old girl as she rode around the track.

People tried to "push" the boys away but they kept coming back, eventually working their way around to the bike stand and taking off with his son Nathan’s near-new bike, Mr Scott says

Nathan says he "really, really" liked the red 24-inch cruiser and he felt "really, really sad" when he discovered it’d been stolen.

Mr Scott knows it’s still in the Red Hill area.

"I’ve heard through kids in the neighbourhood."

The next day Mr Scott went back to the track that backs on to Keri Downs Park to see if the bike had been stashed somewhere.

He didn’t find it but he did find a group of eight to 11-year-olds kicking holes in the walls in the commentary tower.

"So I started taking photos and they were saying to each other: ‘Keep your faces covered, bro’.

"They went nutso and confronted me."

Then they threatened to kill him so he rang the police. But before they arrived another squad car sped past with its siren going which was enough to make the children leg it.

Mr Scott filed a complaint with police and handed over his photos.

The recent events just add to the problems the club has had to deal with on a weekly basis – broken bottles, drunken teenagers, graffiti and people smoking marijuana in front of young riders, he says.

The tuck shop has also been repeatedly robbed and last time thieves broke in they defecated and urinated on the floor which "was pretty degrading to clean up".

The club – one of the biggest in New Zealand – rents the track’s land off the Papakura District Council and although the council has contemplated putting up a fence Mr Scott says "that’s not going to do anything".

"We have to move tracks. It’s definitely not a wished move but the kids call it Bronxville."

- © Fairfax NZ News