Lime scooters found 300km out of bounds in Marlborough

Thursday, 29 November 2018

E-scooter company Lime launched in New Zealand with hundreds of scooters scattered across Auckland and Christchurch. (Video first published in October 2018)

New Zealand's newest transport trend, Lime scooters, have made their way to Marlborough … somehow.

But don't download the app just yet - the Uber-like electric scooters haven't been rolled out in Blenheim.

One had been 'found' in Blenheim, and one in Picton, and were being held at the Blenheim Police Station.

Boys riding a Lime scooter on Rolleston Ave, outside Christ's College.

Blenheim community constable Russ Smith said police did not know how the Lime scooters got to Marlborough.

**READ MORE:

Blenheim community constable Russ Smith with one of the two recovered Lime Scooters in Marlborough.

* Lime recalls one of its models amid fears the scooters can break apart

* Lime scooter retrieved from Auckland beach rusty and barnacled

Two Lime scooters have travelled more than 300km to end up in Blenheim and Picton.

* Meet a student who earns $100 per day by charging Lime e-scooters**

Police were not investigating their random appearance as no complaint had been made regarding their disappearance, Smith said.

Two Lime scooters have been pulled from Christchurch's Avon River so far.

While far from home, it was not the first time the e-scooters had turned up outside their permitted, 'geo-fenced' area.

A rusty, barnacled scooter washed up at an Auckland beach at the start of the month. Another two had been pulled from the Avon River in Christchurch.

A Lime scooter on a beach north of Devonport near Auckland.

A lime scooter's range on full charge was estimated at 45 to 60 kilometres, so it was unlikely that someone rode them more than 300km from Christchurch to Blenheim, or Picton.

Lime launcher Hank Rowe said cases of scooters being relocated to unapproved areas were rare.

Lime e-scooter juicer Tom Morton earns extra cash from collecting and charging e-scooters in Auckland.

Police walk past parked up Lime scooters at the main entrance to Addington Raceway on New Zealand Trotting Cup day during NZ Cup and Show Week.

'Our operations team have been alerted of this incident and are working to retrieve the scooters,' Rowe said.

He said the electric scooters were GPS and 3G-enabled, making it easy to track their location anywhere in the country.

Lime 'juicers' were contracted to collect and recharge the scooters, a job some had found to be quite lucrative.

Juicers earned about $7 per scooter picked up and charged, but bounties rose depending on location and how much charge was remaining.

Lime would not comment on how high the bounty was for the two region-hopping scooters.

Lime scooters launched in Christchurch and Auckland in October, and would soon be making their way to several other New Zealand cities.

AMI Insurance, strip club Calendar Girls and Eden Park in Auckland were cashing in on the Lime e-scooter fad to market their products and services while schools, AA, community groups and a Christmas lights advocate had all pushed back against Lime citing safety concerns.

Smith said the two scooters were picked up by a courier company and returned to Christchurch on Wednesday.

Rowe asked the public to report scooters left in inaccessible or inappropriate areas to the Lime NZ customer service team.