Police tomorrow (Wednesday, 20 April) wrap up the Vehicle Recovery Team's operations at Hagley Park, Christchurch.
The tents are coming down today and from tonight police will no longer be actively recovering vehicles that were parked in the CBD at the time of the 22 February earthquake.
Senior Sergeant Graham Reeves says the team of Police and Civil Defence Light Rescue personnel have done everything possible to recover vehicles. Staff from Inland Revenue have volunteered their time to help answer calls and assist with the reconciliation of vehicles phase.
A total of 5548 vehicles have been recovered from the CBD. A further 40 are still at Hagley Park awaiting collection by their owners. This number is dropping by the hour. However police remind owners they need to collect their vehicles from the Hagley Park site (entrance off Armagh Street), between befre 6pm today, Tuesday or by midday tomorrow, Wednesday, 19 April.
After this time any remaining vehicles will be towed to a secure storage facility, the details of which will be announced shortly.
Police have also identified 20 vehicles that haven't been able to be extracted due to inaccessibility or damage. One crushed vehicle was recovered today from the PGC site.
"We're really pleased that with the help of engineers and others so many vehicles have been recovered and returned to owners," Senior Sergeant Reeves said. "It's been tough for owners who were without their cars so it's been very rewarding for us to bring some smiles to people's faces."
A small team will continue to operate from the Christchurch Central Police Station in the next few weeks to handle any queries from the public about vehicle recovery.
The team can be contacted on the main Christchurch Central Police Station telephone number (03 363 7400) or via the email address: chchvehiclerecovery@police.govt.nz.
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Christchurch Media Liaison Team: 027 432 0960 or ChchPoliceMediaLiason@police.govt.nz