New Zealand police have released CCTV footage they believe shows fugitive Tom Phillips and one of his three children breaking into a convenience store in the North Island town of Piopio. The footage, captured in the early hours of Wednesday at Piopio Superette, shows a masked man and child using a power tool to cut their way into the store before loading groceries onto a quad bike and fleeing.
Detective Senior Sergeant Andy Saunders said the sighting is the first confirmed of Phillips in a year, nearly four years after he disappeared with his children, now aged 12, 10, and nine, from their Marokopa family farm in December 2021. Phillips does not have legal custody of the children, and police believe the family has been living in the Waikato’s King Country bush with outside help.
Police linked Phillips to a robbery at an ANZ bank in Te Kūiti in May 2023, where two armed people demanded cash before fleeing on a motorbike. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and he faces charges including aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
The most recent sighting before this week was in October 2024, when pig hunters filmed a man and three children in camouflage in remote Marokopa farmland, prompting a three-day search. Phillips’ sister made a new appeal earlier this month, reiterating the family’s willingness to help him, while the children’s mother expressed relief they were alive.
“At the heart of this are three children who have been away from their home for four years,” Saunders said. An $80,000 reward for information expired in June 2024.
