Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #560

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
ManPosesAsAttractiveBlondeWoman, Convinces Police Officer To Hand Over Patrol Car
A young man's fake Tinder per- sona of an attrac- tive blonde woman was so convincing he managed to per- suade an active police officer to hand over his patrol car and body armour vest.
Tyler Rawiri Tetera, then 23 and long fascinat- ed with police, used the car and vest in an elabo- rate sex-money scam, swindling tens of thousands of dollars in total from three vic- tims. They bought him iPhones, a
car, and in at least one case, had sex with him.
Court documents tell the story of an easily bored young man skilled at using superfi- cial charm and deceit to create chaos.
Suppression orders on Tetera's identity and file were lifted last week, shedding light on his spree of lies and decep- tion from January 2020 until his arrest in March the following year.
Tetera's relation-
ship with his first victim, named in court documents asMsH,wasa farce from the start.
They met on Tinder in January 2020 and for nine months, he fooled her into thinking he was a police dog handler and in an undercover role.
To solidify his act, he sent her pho- tos and videos of himself in police uniform - it is not clear how he got the uniform - pho- tos of police staff, police cars, the
inside of police stations, as well as audio from a police radio. He also told her he owned multiple properties and a business called Empire Capitals, sending her emails from a fic- tional assistant called Mark and calling himself "Lord".
As part of his business advice, Tetera convinced hertobuyacar for him in her name, saying it would increase her credit score.
She also bought him an iPhone after he said he couldn't buy it himself because he had business disputes with Spark and Vodafone.
He eventually returned the car, beat up and needing costly repairs. He never returned the phone. The pair had a romantic relationship between January and September 2020.
Tetera struck again shortly after that, this time as a woman.
Using photos stolen from a for- mer police- woman's social media, including her in uniform, he created the Tinder profile of an allur- ing blonde called Tori and started messaging the second victim, an active police offi- cer called Mr L, in early October 2020.
"Tori" told Mr L she was working in an anti-corrup- tion operation and needed his help to plant a listening device in a police car.
On 11 November 2020, Mr L brought a marked police patrol vehi- cle to Auckland and handed it to Tetera, thinking he was Tori's col- league.
Tetera had the car for about four hours that first time, and man- aged to get the
police car a sec- ond time later the same month. Tori had told Mr L the listening device did not work and they needed the car again.
Later that month, Mr L handed over his spare body armor vest, again under the ruse of Tori's undercover work to insert a listening device in it for placement at a police station.
Like the first vic- tim, Mr L was scammed into buying an iPhone 12 for Tori, who said her wealthy father's board members did not want her to have a personal phone or social media for fear of it get- ting hacked.
Tetera returned the police car, but not the vest.
Much later, he told police after his arrest that get- ting the patrol car was "worth it for the thrill of driving a Holden Commodore".
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine