Hitchhiker who went ‘berserk’ in New Zealand appears in court

The French hitchhiker who went on a frustrated rampage through a tiny New Zealand fishing village after not being able to get a lift for four days has appeared in court and pleaded guilty to stealing a sleeping bag, as well the earlier charge of wilful damage.

Cedric Claude Rene Rault-Verpre (27) was charged with NZ$3,000 (€1,970) worth of wilful damage last week after he attacked a road sign in the tiny west coast settlement of Punakaiki, after spending four days there unable to catch a hitchhiking lift.

Rault-Verpre, who says on his couchsurfing.com profile that he has hitchhiked through more than 70 countries for the last five years, was arrested after the incident on Tuesday. Leaving the courthouse he described New Zealand as “Nazi Zealand” to reporters.

On Friday. Rault-Verpre appeared in Christchurch district court and was charged with a second crime – the theft of a NZ$1,000 sleeping bag, allegedly stolen from an Auckland central city Kathmandu store on September 9th, NZME reported.

Rault-Verpre has pleaded guilty to the charges of theft and wilful damage, and has had his passport confiscated by New Zealand police. The fine was paid by an “external person”.

On Friday the judge granted the Frenchman bail, but ordered him to report to the Christchurch police station on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, in the lead-up to his review hearing on October 4th, Fairfax reported.

Police prosecutor Bronwen Blackmore said she had concerns Rault-Verpre had been travelling through New Zealand on a one-year working visa causing “significant damage”.

Duty lawyer Andrew McKenzie, who was representing Rault-Verpre, said his client disputed some of the witness statements from Punakaiki locals about his behaviour, and the amount of damage he is accused of inflicting on the road sign.

McKenzie said the case needed to be heard in Christchurch because his client faced “considerable hostility” in Greymouth, according to NZME.

Rault-Verpre had been travelling and working around New Zealand for a number of months before he found himself stranded in Punakaiki.

After failing to hitch a lift for four days local residents described him as going “berserk”, and attacking the Welcome to Punakaiki sign with a rock, abusing motorists and throwing other road signs into the local river.

“Oh he threw an absolute hissy fit; he was lying prone on the road screaming that New Zealanders were assholes and he couldn’t wait to get back to Europe,” said local Neil Mouat, who eventually called police after an elderly fisherman “had words” with him, and Mr Mouat feared the altercation could turn violent.

“He was a spoilt millennial, and he created a hell of a din. But all that time he was standing in the wrong place to hitchhike – a corner with poor visibility and nowhere for cars to easily pull over.”

West coast senior sergeant Paul Watson said Rault-Verpre was only a day’s walk from the established town of Greymouth, and could have been halfway down the west coast in four days.

“That road sees a bit of traffic but this man had no joy, I suspect because of his aggressive behaviour. He also told us he hadn’t eaten for two days so that could have contributed to him losing the plot.”

“Hitchhiking is totally legal and travellers usually have no problem hitching lifts around here. It is rare to see anyone waiting for long, and I have never heard of someone waiting four days. This case is an outlier.” said Watson.

Guardian service