Maryana Garcia: Waikato Herald reporter on the helicopter patrol and checkpoints being used to track down missing Marokopa man

The police helicopter and checkpoints are being used in Marokopa in the search for Tom Phillips and his three children.

Police announced an $80,000 reward yesterday - and say they've had an increase in emails, calls and visits since.

Waikato Herald reporter Maryana Garcia says police are stopping cars going in and out of the town and the chopper has been up all day.

"The chopper's been flying over the Marokopa area, it came through this morning and it did a loop around that coastal area."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Police say that they've had information on the missing Martikopa
dad come in overnight after they offered that eighty thousand
dollars reward yesterday. They have a chopper in the air
today they've set up four checkpoints around the town. Mariana
Garcia is a Waikator Herald reporter who's been at the
scene today. Mariana, Hello, Hello. Does it sound to you
like any of the information that's come in overnight is
actually good information?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's really hard to tell hither. The police haven't confirmed
either way whether any of their tips have panned out,
but there is a very heavy police presence in the
town today.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
And what are they running these checkpoints for exactly?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
They seem to be checking inside of vehicles that are
coming and going from not A Koppa and also checking
driver's licenses and identifications of each vehicle that comes through.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
It is the point of that to just put pressure
on the community.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
They haven't said either way, but I think they seem
to be trying to find someone, and that seems to
be what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
And the chopper, where has the chopper been flying.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
The chopper's been flying over the Matacoppa area. It came
through this morning and did a loop around that coastal
area this evening. It could come back. We haven't had
confirmation of that yet.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Do you get the sense that the community is behind
Tom Phillips or behind the effort from the cops.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
There was no members of the community that I spoke
to today. They seem to be rather quiet in town.
There was no one that I could see on the streets,
even aside from police, So it's really hard to tell.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Marianna, thank you very much, Really appreciate it. Mate. This
Mariana Garcia, Whycattle Herald Reporter.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
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