A man described as having “superhuman strength” has been arrested after going on a bizarre smashing rampage through a Christchurch hospitality spot.
As first reported by Chris Lynch Media, just after 3 AM on Tuesday morning, the man ripped off installations outside two restaurants and used them as weapons to smash his way along The Terrace precinct on Oxford Terrace.
Brendan Hammond from Brendan Hammond Building and Contractors was tasked with the job of fixing the damage left behind.
“He managed to rip off wall installations chained outside of Bangalore Polo Club and Little Fiddle.
To be fair the cleaners did a lot of the work cleaning up the mess. There was a lot of glass smashed everywhere”
Hammond said windows at Amazonita were smashed and needed replacing and 13 windows needed replacing at Little Fiddle.
Panels were damaged at Amazonita and at the cocktail bar Kong.
Hammond said “the man must have been on something as it would have taken a lot of strength to rip the statues off the walls.
Little Fiddle Manager Mel said “to be quite honest, the footage is quite disturbing to watch.
He seemed to have super-human strength!”
Little Fiddle Photo: Chris Lynch
Emma Franks from VHL Hospitality Limited which runs Amazonita said “we are very disappointed about what happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The incident has caused significant damage to multiple venues along The Terrace and required us to close for most of the day on Tuesday”
Franks said “police were on the scene promptly and arrested the man in question.
Our cleaners were on site at the time and as you can imagine were very shaken after the incident.
We are grateful that no one was hurt and they managed to get away to a safe place.”
Hammond said “CCTV footage showed the man talking to the statues he ripped off, so clearly something wasn’t right.”
A different contractor, who didn’t want to be named, said the offender cut his hand during the incident and saw CCTV footage of the swinging from outside hanging heaters, which he also broke.
The contractor wanted to make the incident public because they believed the offender would “probably just get away with it.”
A restaurant worker said the incident was “very strange. It was such a bizarre rampage, but I’m angry that he’s caused so much damage, and will probably get a slap on the hand.”
A police spokeswoman said about 3:50 am there was a breach of peace report on Oxford Terrace.
“The informant reported hearing smashing sounds. It looks like a person was taken into custody around this time in the area.”
Chris Lynch Media understands the man faces several charges and was released on bail.
