Apology over burglary bungle

Police have apologised to a group of burgled flatmates after a botchup with their case files.

Marish Choi said her home in Glenfield, on Auckland’s North Shore, was burgled on August 26.

Laptops, shoes, clothes and a portable stove were stolen.

‘‘On the day, I and two other flatmates went to the police station [and were given an] email address to send photos of the house,’’ Choi said.

‘‘I sent two emails. All emails were ignored.’’

Choi said her flatmate went to police again on Friday that week and he was asked whether he had reported the case, as no records could be found.

Choi said the flatmate got no help creating another report. He was told that police had no idea when the officer who the flatmates had met on August 26 would be back at work.

Choi also said a different officer called the following Tuesday morning and seemed to believe the burglary happened on September 2, not a week earlier.

Responding to queries from Stuff, police apologised and said the botchup was down to a new employee being assigned to the case.

‘‘The complaint was taken by a new police officer who did not have access to enter a file in our system and, unfortunately, no file was entered at the time of the complaint,’’ said Inspector Sunny Patel, the Waitemata¯ East area commander.

‘‘The member of the public was given contact details of the police officer [but] that officer was on rostered days off for several days after the incident, which regrettably meant that the victim was not able to make contact.’’

Patel said when the officer returned to work, they apologised for the lack of police contact and action on the case.

A forensic examination of the Glenfield address was carried out and the tactical crime unit was investigating the case, Patel added.

‘‘We want to apologise again to the victim for what was a genuine mistake by police staff and we want to reassure the community that we treat burglary incidents like this seriously.’’