French hitchhiker arrested for flipping out after 4 days without a ride
Hitchhiking can be an exhilarating experience for the brazen, but a frustrated Frenchman travelling in New Zealand has found it to be quite the ordeal.
Cedric Claude Rene Rault-Verpre, 27, couldn't get a lift out of the small town of Punakaiki, so he allegedly took out his anger at road signs in the area.
Witnesses said they saw him verbally abuse people, threw rocks at a sign, while another sign had appeared to have been pulled out and thrown into the nearby Punakaiki River.
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"We found one in the bushes last night and one had been thrown in the river," local man Neil Mouat told Westport News on Monday.
Following complaints to police, Rault-Verpre was arrested on Sunday, appearing at Greymouth District Court on Tuesday pleading guilty to the charge of damaging road signs, according to the New Zealand Herald.
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Rault-Verpre told the court that no-one had offered him water in the four days he waited on the side of a highway.
Fulton Hogan, the company that owns the signs, is seeking NZ$3,000 (US$2,194) in reparations.
It's something Rault-Verpre disputes the value of, who told reporters outside they were already damaged and weren't worth more than $100.
"You should change the name: 'Nazi Zealand' not New Zealand," he said. Rault-Verpre has been ordered to surrender his passport and must return to court on Friday in Christchurch.
Police told the New Zealand Herald had he started walking, he would be 220 kilometres (136 miles) away by this point.
"He could have started walking, he would have been in Franz Josef by now," Senior Sergeant Paul Watson said.
Suffice it to say, the experience has left Rault-Verpre not so impressed with the New Zealand as a travel destination.
"I've been to 80 countries," he told reporters. "The worst part of the U.S. -- the worst American is not an asshole like a New Zealander."
