Charity closes doors after burglaries
A Thames group that recycles bikes for needy children is being forced to close its doors after ongoing burglaries.
Since the Re-cycle group started four years ago, it has up-cycled more than 500 bikes and donated them to needy children in the Thames and Hauraki districts.
However, in the past six months, ongoing burglaries and property damage at their Beach Rd site has meant they can no longer operate.
Re-cycle group member Arthur Harsant said when members meet each week to up-cycle the bikes, they are met with another theft and more destruction of property.
Thieves have repeatedly cut through the wire fence, ransacked the property and on one occasion lit a fire.
In the past few weeks, more than 50 up-cycled bikes have been taken, along with bike parts such as chains, wheels and cables that were needed to fix more bikes.
‘‘Literally pretty much all the bikes we’ve done up ready to give away in the last few weeks,’’ he said.
‘‘We thought because of what we were doing, we’d be immune to this.’’
Member Chris Dale said the last lot of stolen bikes were bound for children at Moanataiari School in Thames.
‘‘The sad part is that if they want something, they just have to ask, we’ll even help them build it,’’ he said.
The Re-cycle group was the legacy of late Thames lawyer Bruce Oliver, who died shortly after setting it up.
‘‘He wanted to see everybody on a bike,’’ Dale said. Bikes are donated from members of the public and Smart Environmental Refuse Transfer Stations around the Coromandel Peninsula.
Members of the public can still donate old bikes to the group: Chris Dale, phone 07 868 2690, or Arthur Harsant, phone 07 868 9257.