Fruit thieves targeted plum tree, says owner Burger not all ‘Hoki Dokey’

A Hawke’s Bay woman who had her plum tree stripped of fruit is enraged at what she believes was a targeted theft.

The woman, who wishes to be known only as Meg, is convinced there is an organised fruit theft gang that has been watching her property.

‘‘We live in an incredibly isolated location, so someone knows about this tree, and there’s just absolutely no fruit left – they’ve raked everything up underneath it,’’ she said.

Meg uses the fruit to make jam, and often drops it off at free food stands across Hawke’s Bay for those who can’t afford it.

‘‘I believe it’s a Shiro tree, which means the plums are yellow in colour and have a similar taste to an apricot. They’ve only specifically targeted this tree and nothing else,’’ she said.

‘‘I’m just so angry. It’s an old tree, and they’ve just caused so much damage to it. They’ve ripped it to shreds.

‘‘They must be selling the fruit at local markets across Hawke’s Bay.’’

Meg said she believed the group watched her property and targeted the orchard when she and her husband were away from the house.

‘‘They target the house during the day. If they did it at night, the dogs would hear and they’d start barking. Someone’s driving in either a van or four-wheel drive and taking off with it.’’

Meg said she had not reported the theft to the police ‘‘because it’s just fruit’’.

However, a police spokesperson recommended that any theft should be reported to the authorities.

Another Hawke’s Bay woman said her apricot tree had been completely stripped of fruit.

‘‘This happened a few years ago, but they must have been watching my house. We’ve installed security lights, and have really good neighbours who keep an eye on things. We also have a large dog, so that’s usually good at keeping people off the property.’’

In December last year, Crab Farm Winery near Napier had 50 avocado trees stripped of their fruit in one of its orchards. Owner and winemaker Hamish Jardine said the thieves cut through a fence, and it was estimated they had taken an apple crate worth of fruit.

Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan encouraged people who owned fruit trees to take extra security measures such as installing security lights, fencing or CCTV cameras.

BurgerFuel’s launch of its ‘Hoki Dokey’ fish burger has disappointed te reo Ma¯ ori advocates who are concerned it risks reinforcing the incorrect pronunciation of hoki.

Christchurch fish and chip restaurant owner Anton Matthews – a high profile champion of te reo – said that throughout his life people had pronounced the fish species ‘‘hokey’’. Phonetically the pronunciation was along the lines of ‘‘haw-key’’.

Pronouncing te reo Ma¯ ori words properly was the basis of the language, and some words pronounced incorrectly could have a different meaning.

‘‘Te reo Ma¯ori is an endangered language,’’ Matthews said. ‘‘We have an opportunity as a country now to bring that language back of life. It’s going to take the whole country getting on board, and it starts with giving te reo Ma¯ ori enough credit that we try to pronounce words like hoki.’’

The language couldn’t take much more mispronunciation, Matthews said.

A BurgerFuel spokesperson said the company had not intended to cause offence or disrespect at any point. ‘‘Based on that intent we have been engaging with the customers who have given us feedback to look at lots of different options.’’