Thieves hit grieving mum
Mother says loss of laptop ‘like losing son all over again’
Adevastated Hawke’s Bay mum says it feels like she’s lost her son all over again after thieves stole his laptop filled with precious memories. Patrice Karangaroa woke last Thursday to find her car on Napier’s Wharerangi Rd had been broken into.
Gear including an overnight bag with shoes, make-up, items of clothing and perfume were taken, but it was the loss of a black Acer laptop that hit her hardest.
“That can all be replaced, but my son’s laptop means more to me than anything,” Karangaroa said.
Her son, Kingston KarangaroaMohi, was just 9 when he died in December 2017.
He had been diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2013.
Throughout his illness, the community rallied around, making memories he and his family could treasure.
Karangaroa says the laptop held many of those, including a video from former All Black Israel Dagg that was played at Kingston’s funeral, and stories the little boy wrote about how he was feeling.
“He also used it for watching YouTube videos, Skyping his family wherever they were in the world, because he was confined to his four walls, and so he could watch SkyGo, to keep up with the All Blacks,” Karangaroa said.
The family believe the laptop was stolen some time between 11.30pm on Thursday and 4.30am on Friday.
“My honest gut feeling is that it was people walking home from the concert just being idiots, trying all the cars and my car happened to be the car they got in to.”
On Monday, Karangaroa was given a false tip that the laptop had been found by road workers, but despite the setback, she has not given up hope. “I have this full gut feeling that Kingston will make sure it comes back to us.”
Friends and family have pleaded on social media for its safe return and the police have been contacted.
“I guarantee that they would have seen something on Facebook, I just hope they haven’t freaked out and decided to ditch it somewhere stupid.”
Karangaroa says there will be “no questions asked”.
“Please return it. You can have anything in the bags but we don’t want to let go of anything of [Kingston’s]. We’ve already had to say goodbye to him.”
A police spokeswoman said the laptop had been reported stolen and inquiries were continuing.