Record stolen property haul found
The task of identifying who the property belongs to is going to be a very big job
A 30,000-litre water tank has been returned to the family it was stolen from after Waitemata police got what they say is the largest recovery of stolen goods in the district.
An organised group of thieves hauled the 500-kilogram water tank off the Brown family’s Forestry Rd property in Waitoki on March 1.
Kathryn Brown said her family were shocked to find the 3.7-metre wide and 3.1m-tall tank missing and she was surprised anyone would go to the trouble of stealing it.
The tank was returned to the family on Thursday after police raided a Dairy Flat property the day before.
Brown said the family were very happy to get the tank back, especially as they were warned by police they would probably never see it again.
‘‘It’s a big ‘yay’ to the police, who have looked for three months,’’ she said. ‘‘But it was horrifying to find out that it was so close to home, too, less than 12 kilometres away in Dairy Flat.’’
Following the theft in March, police warned builders a group of thieves was operating in the area and had stolen tools, equipment and whiteware from building sites.
Police hit the jackpot when they searched a Dairy Flat Highway address during Operation Tank on Wednesday, where they found the Browns’ tank, which had been piped into the property.
Alongside it they found 12 shipping containers, two horse floats and sheds packed with stolen property. Items included large quantities of high-end power tools such as generators, jack hammers, circular saws, drills, water blasters and building tools.
The thieves had stolen other larger items such as scaffolding, dishwashers, ovens, vanity units, hot water cylinders, fridge- freezers, concreting equipment like cutters and compactors, and dozens of bags of cement.
Motorcycles, quad bikes,
six trailers and stolen from found.
Police spent three days at the a boat and trailer Huntly were also
Senior Sergeant Andy King
address examining the haul and believe the huge quantity of property will be linked to dozens of burglaries in the Rodney area and the upper North Island.
‘‘The task of identifying who the property belongs to is going to be a very big job,’’ Senior Sergeant Andy King, of Rodney, said.
‘‘We anticipate that this news will result in members of the public wanting to call us to check if it’s items they’ve had stolen.’’
Police have the property in storage and will start identifying owners.
‘‘Next week we’ll provide details of a contact number that people can call, but at this stage we’d ask members of the public to bear with us while we get that process underway,’’ King said.
A 43-year-old man has been charged with receiving stolen property.
King said police put a great deal of resources into targeting construction site and rural burglaries. He hoped the bust would give some relief to the many people who had been victims.
‘‘We’re committed to finding the people responsible for this,’’ he said.