Thomas Phillips: New video surveillance images published to show the Future Fugitive New Zealand with one of his three children

New Zealand police have published video surveillance images that show a fugitive father who has been on the run with his three children in the distant desert for almost four years.

Thomas Callam Phillips hid his children Jayda, Maverick and Ember, in the dense New Zealand bush after taking them from their home to Marokopa on the northern island in December 2021.

The possible observation comes after Phillips’s relatives last week urged the father to go home.

Friday, police released the clip showing two masked people loaded with grocery store in containers on a quadbike outside a retail store 35 miles away in the small town of Piopio. The incident took place around 2 a.m. on Wednesday, shortly before the store was robbed.

The owner of the store, who did not want to be appointed, said that the affiliate CNN RNZ Milk was the only thing that had been taken despite the vegetables and the butter also exposed.

He said that two people used an angle crusher to cut the padlock on the outside cooler of his store, triggering the alarm, and the pair caught milk before fleeing on a quad.

“They refused the opportunity to take butter, cheese and vegetables also stored in the cooler,” he added.

The agents are investigating video surveillance for any link with Phillips and the store is the one it would have targeted, in vain, in November 2023, said the main sergeant detective Andy Saunders.

“We believe that the pair in this sequence is Tom and one of his children,” said Saunders.

“They were in the region for 13 minutes, after trailing in a quadbike,” he added.

Police think that Phillips and his children live out of network, the father using his survival skills to feed, house and dress his children. They also believe that supporters help him stay free.

Addressing local media on Friday morning, Saunders said that break -in could be a sign that Phillips no longer obtained the help he had been.

“Does that mean that he potentially had a fall with whom helps him?” Or is it just cheeky and confident that it is very happy to go out at night and to commit a burglary? ” He said, as RNZ reported.

Last June, the police offered an $ 80,000 award in New Zealand ($ 52,000) for information leading to their location and their safe yield.

The series of alleged crimes of Phillips includes the armed robbery of a bank in May 2023, when two people were seen on closed circuit television escaping on a motorcycle with money.

Phillips already faces a range of charges, including aggravated theft, aggravated injuries and illegal possession of a firearm.

In his first interview since the disappearance of Phillips, his sister Rozzi Phillips told the New Zealand journalist Paddy Gower how much the family is missing and wanted him to come back.

“I miss you and I get bored to be part of your life,” she said, her voice breaks. “You are very special for me … I really want to see you again.”

Rozzi Phillips, who told Gower that she had had no contact with her brother since her disappearance, has also read a handwritten letter from their mother to her disappeared son.

“It hurts every time I see photos of the children and you and I see some of your belongings who are still there, thinking what could have been if you were not gone,” said the New Zealand News website.

“Jayda, Maverick, Ember, I love you so much and I really fail to be part of your life every day, and I hope that today will be the day you come,” he continued.

In November 2023, Phillips and an unnamed child would also have broken the window of a shop at 2 am, before fleeing on a stolen quad. Phillips was also seen on CCTV, with his covered face, buying supplies in a hardware store.

Last year, the mother of the children, who identified as a cat, made an emotional call to anyone with information on where his children are to call the police.

“I’m here in front of you today, begging you to bring my babies back home,” she said in a video published on Facebook. “They are only innocent children.”

From Jayda, she said, “She will be a young woman now, and she needs her mother.”

“Ember is asthmatic, as I am, and it needs medical care that cannot be provided from the field. And I can only imagine how Maverick faces,” she added.

“What Thomas does is not correct,” she said. “None of this is fine. My babies deserve better.”

Friday, in his declaration, the senior Senior Saunders sergeant-detective added: “At the heart of this are three children who have been far from their home for four years. Their well-being is our main objective. ”