Pew! Church seats safe

Hallelujah! The mystery behind the supposed theft of historic church pews from a church in Mt Eden has been solved.

And it seems it was a simple case of miscommunication.

It was initially thought 10 117-year-old pews had been stolen from the historic Mt Eden Pacific Islanders Presbyterian Church at 31 Esplanade Rd on Sunday, February 12.

Police on Wednesday called it an ‘‘unusual’’ theft requiring at least two people, a trailer and some heavy lifting.

However, contractors soon contacted police to say they had removed the heavy wooden pews before the church is set to be demolished.

The church, which is at least 130 years old, is in the process of being sold after the cost of repairs was deemed too much for its parishioners to take on.

In 2014 the site was valued at $3.8 million. It is now pegged for development into four apartments expected to be worth about $1.6 million each.

The church’s minister Reverend Ngatokotoru Ine said the church’s congregation had been allowed to continue using the church until final settlement of the sale, which was expected to happen within the next two months.

He said the missing pews would not stop Sunday’s service as ‘‘there’s still plenty of room’’.

‘‘There’s enough seats there for the number of people that come on Sunday worship,’’ Ine said.

Police said the managers of the church were not aware the pews were due to be removed.

Constable Laura Van Doormaal said police would be speaking with both parties to establish what happened but the incident was no longer being treated as a burglary.