Visitors fall victim to city’s spate of Mazda car thefts

An Auckland couple had their Easter holiday in Taranaki flipped upside down when their car was stolen, used for burnouts and damaged to a point where they couldn’t drive it home.

James Howe and his partner came to the region for the first time to do the Pouakai Crossing on Sunday, having completing the Tongariro Crossing the day before.

They settled in to spend Sunday night at the Ariki Backpackers in central New Plymouth, with the black Mazda Demio parked outside.

They did not know there has been a spate of Mazda thefts in New Plymouth, with 15 stolen across the district in January alone.

On Monday morning ‘‘we woke up with messages from police saying the car’s been stolen’’, Howe said. ‘‘It was a bit of a pain.’’

One of the car’s windows was broken, the ignition had been ripped out, and it had been driven in the wrong direction along the city’s one-way street system, he said.

The car had also been used to do burnouts and police received complaints about the way it was being driven, Howe added.

The 25-year-old said they did not have anything sentimental in the car, but there were two children’s car seats, glasses in a blue case, a tan Billabong ski jacket, a blue paisley North Face Jacket, Adidas Stan Smith shoes, and keys with a cartoon kiwi pattered bottle opener key ring.

Members of the public had phoned police after seeing things being thrown out of the moving car, he said.

‘‘The car was pretty well bare by the end of it.’’

Police retrieved the car from Waitara, but Howe said they were advised not to drive it back as the full damage was not known. Instead the couple flew back to Auckland.

They are now appealing to get their belongings back.

Yesterday, a police media spokeswoman confirmed a car matching the description had been recovered in Waitara at 2am on Monday morning, after police received complaints of traffic offending. She said officers managed to take one young person into custody, who was referred to youth aide.

The incident comes one week after Taranaki area prevention manager Inspector Darin Haenga said a group of youths, aged between 13-20, were responsible for the rise in Mazda thefts in the region.