Medal comes home
Boxing champion David Nyika says he never expected to be reunited with his Commonwealth Games gold medal.
The Gold Coast gold medal was stolen out of the Hamilton-based heavyweight’s car late last month.
But yesterday the 22-year-old got to hang the prized medal around his neck once again after Hamilton police tracked it down and returned it to the back-to-back Games champion.
‘‘My girlfriend took the call, I was downstairs in the garage and I could hear through my headphones this high pitched shrieking,’’ he told the Waikato Times yesterday morning.
‘‘I quickly realised what had happened.
‘‘I was just shocked and excited.’’
Nyika said he was happy the medal was found, in the original box and bag it came in.
He tried to remain ‘‘hopeful’’ but said he never expected to have it returned.
‘‘It’s really the best case scenario. It would have been so easy for it to go wrong, for them to ditch the gold medal.’’
Detective Sergeant Paul Slater confirmed to Stuff that a team from Hamilton police’s Tactical Crime Unit had recovered the medal. He would not say where it was recovered from as inquiries were ongoing. One person is facing charges of receiving stolen goods in relation to the vouchers that were taken from the glovebox of Nyika’s car. He did not believe those who stole Nyika’s bag from his car knew the medal was in it at the time, he said.
Police previously released CCTV images from an Auckland retail premises of people they believed could help locate the medal.
Since going public, Slater said the influx of interest and information from the public was ‘‘phenomenal’’, helping to expedite the case.
‘‘Clearly there was a lot of work done behind the scenes,’’ Nyika said.
It still wasn’t clear exactly where Nyika’s car was parked when the bag containing the medal was taken from beneath the seat. Vouchers were also stolen from his glovebox.
He realised it was gone when he went to surprise a young fan at their school, only to find the medal was missing. He reported it stolen to police on Sunday, April 29. There was no sign of forced entry on the car, which makes him believe it could have been parked in his driveway at home.
‘‘There’s this 48 hours of when we thought it could have gone missing and we had to narrow it down to Hamilton or Auckland. I guess these are details we’ll find out.’’
Through social media, Nyika said his family were able to identify some of the people of interest and provide that information to police.
‘‘Friends came to us saying they knew this person and that person and that was really positive. Scrolling through the comments on the police’s Facebook page we found a few leads.’’
Getting the medal back in one piece was a ‘‘bonus’’ he said. ‘‘I was amazed at how efficient and how professional police have been through this whole operation, it’s been a good experience.From here on he intends to keep the gold close by. ‘‘I hope to do everything I haven’t done already – take it to schools, show it to my sponsors, share the moment with the community.’’