Havreite and another assaulted in New Zealand

A Havre native and a Shelby resident were assaulted in New Zealand within 48 hours of landing in the country.

Jacob Ulgenes, 22, of Havre and Scott Kelleher, 23,of Shelby graduated December from Montana Tech in Butte and were visiting New Zealand as a vacation. They were with other travellers at 3 a.m. Saturday New Zealand’s time when a vehicle pulled up to where they were standing, The New Zealand Herald reported.

Jacob Ulgenes’ father, former Havre pastor Brad Ulgenes, said that he is out of the hospital now. He had surgery Monday and was out Tuesday. He said the two are on their way to Australia now to continue their vacation and are in good spirits.

“The people over there have been really good to him,” he said. “The people were horrified in happened because they were afraid it was going to affect tourism.”

He said his son holds no grudge against New Zealand and believes it was just a single case of violence and not a representation of the culture.

“A German woman in the group made a joke about the brightness of the car’s lights, and a woman in the car became aggressive,” the newspaper reported. “When Mr. Ulgenes tried to calm her he was punched in the jaw by a man, one of to people who appeared to arrive in the car with the woman, while Mr. Kelleher was knocked unconscious, suffering a badly cut lip that later needed stitches.”

The two men were taken to a New Zealand hospital, where Ulgenes had to have his jaw repaired with five titanium plates and 14 screws. Kelleher’s injuries required seven stitches. New Zealand covers tourists’ injuries, so all Ulgenes’ medical care was given to him free of charge.

“Everyone has been so apologetic, and I want people to know we’re not going to judge the people of New Zealand based on an isolated incident with a couple of bad people,” Ulgenes told The New Zealand Herald.

His father said although originally the attack was a shock and raised a lot of fear, he thinks his son will be more cautious and is with two level-headed friends.

No one has been arrested yet in connection to the attack, but police are investigating people of interest.