SMASHED ON NEW YEAR'S: The damage done by the brick thrown at Prime Minister Helen Clark's Auckland electoral office on New Year's Eve.
An unlikely alliance of fireworks, a vigilant neighbour and a mysterious midnight moggy combined to possibly prevent more widespread damage at Prime Minister Helen Clark's Mt Albert electorate office early this morning.
A brick was thrown at the office's window around 12.30am today, with the offender seen disappearing on a scooter immediately afterwards.
The window was cracked but not broken.
An email from a lobby group, People Power, claimed the brick was thrown in protest against the Electoral Finance Act, which came into force today.
Police northern communications spokesman Inspector Ian Brooker said a woman who witnessed the attack possibly prevented further damage through her actions.
The woman, a local resident, had been watching midnight fireworks when she noticed a cat wandering near the office at about 12.30am. Knowing that a neighbour had lost their cat, she went to have a closer look.
At the same time she noticed a person on a motor scooter, who had a short time earlier ridden up the road, stopped and thrown a brick at the window of the electorate office.
"As she went closer to try to get the registration number of the scooter, she was attacked by the cat and screamed. Both the cat and the motor scooter rider were alarmed and left at speed," Mr Brooker said.
The woman called police and supplied them with descriptions of the offender and his scooter.
The woman was not injured by the cat, which grabbed her leg in what she described as a playful attack.
The cat was not the animal belonging to the neighbour.
The woman wishes to remain anonymous.
- NZPA
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