Pair allege sitter stole from home
A Christchurch couple have returned home to find up to $6000 worth of their belongings allegedly stolen by a house-sitter a friend recommended.
Lauren Metcalfe and her husband spent three weeks over Christmas in the United Kingdom visiting unwell relatives.
They found a house-sitter to live in their Parklands home after a longstanding colleague vouched for his old South African schoolmate.
But ever since they returned home on Monday they have noticed more and more items missing.
“It’s really just been small stuff that’s easy to make a quick buck like jewellery. We just keep finding more and more stuff to be honest but the house looks fine.
“You walk into the house and it doesn’t really look like there’s been a problem,” she said.
Police confirmed they are following active lines of inquiry in relation to a report of theft at the address.
Metcalfe believes the man has an open-ended ticket flying out of Auckland back to South Africa and is planning to leave this weekend — but first has to round up the cash to get there from Christchurch.
“The police, what comes across is their hands are tied. We’ve given them a voice recording of [him] admitting half of the stuff, and they’re saying they don’t have enough evidence.”
The mutual friend was extremely embarrassed by the situation.
“The friend of ours is completely devastated that he’s put us in this situation, and has been helping us a lot, sort of build the case.”