{"id":6993,"date":"2023-08-04T11:03:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T23:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6993"},"modified":"2023-08-04T11:03:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T23:03:24","slug":"police-appeal-for-more-sightings-of-tom-phillips-as-best-chance-to-locate-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6993","title":{"rendered":"Police appeal for more sightings of Tom Phillips as ‘best chance’ to locate children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have released a photo of Marokopa father Tom Phillips after the first confirmed sightings since early last year and have appealed for more information.<\/p>\n

\n

Police released a photo of a man they believe is Tom Phillips at Bunnings Te Rapa, Hamilton.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0NZ Herald<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Phillips has been missing with his three children Jayda, 10, Maverick, 8, and Ember, 7, since December 2021, but was spotted several times on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Police said they had received a number of tips from the public after Thursday’s appeal for information on a ute believed to be driven by Phillips, including a sighting of him at Bunnings South on Kahikatea Drive on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The stolen 2003 bronze-coloured Toyota Hilux flat-deck ute was seen in Pokuru near Te Awamutu, in Te Rapa, and in K\u0101whia on three separate occasions on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“Police continue to urge the public to report sightings of this vehicle, as it is the best chance we have to locate Tom and his three children and ensure their welfare,” Waikato police inspector Will Loughrin said.<\/p>\n

Phillips had been disguising his appearance, Loughrin said.<\/p>\n

A photo of the man they believe is Phillips, seen at Bunnings in Te Rapa about 4pm, showed him wearing a white beanie, a surgical mask covering his face, glasses and a blue jacket.<\/p>\n

Phillips was involved in an altercation in K\u0101whia on Wednesday involving another vehicle, police said.<\/p>\n

Residents told RNZ the altercation was a car chase<\/a>, which began after a member of the public recognised the stolen ute Phillips was driving in the Waikato town of Pirongia.<\/p>\n

Loughhrin said on Wednesday police’s primary focus was the welfare of the three children, and that the sightings had the first confirmed reports of him since February 2022.<\/p>\n

“This is incredibly encouraging, and we are imploring the public to please come forward with what you know.<\/p>\n

“We believe there will be people in the community helping Tom and the children, and we are urging those people to do the right thing and please come forward.<\/p>\n

Police asked anyone who may have seen the Toyota ute anywhere in the Waikato area over the last few days call 111.<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police have released a photo of Marokopa father Tom Phillips after the first confirmed sightings since early last year and have appealed for more information. Police released a photo of a man they believe is Tom Phillips at Bunnings Te Rapa, Hamilton.\u00a0Photo:\u00a0NZ Herald Phillips has been missing with his three children Jayda, 10, Maverick, 8, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6995,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6993\/revisions\/6995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}