Otaki TodayBrazen burglars have stolen a trailer and valuable tools from the home of Waikanae Community Board chair Michael Moore.
Michael noticed the distinctive trailer was gone early on the morning of May 1.
“The first thing I saw was the remains of a special bolt I had installed on the trailer towbar connection,” he says. “It was lying on the driveway and when I looked around the trailer was gone from its usual place.”
Michael Moore holding the remains of a special trailer bolt left behind by burglars.
Photo Ōtaki Today
The key-operated bolt was meant to make it difficult for anyone to hook the trailer onto a towbar. “It seems they just cut through it,” Michael says.
Michael’s distinctive trailer.
He immediately notified police.
Michael believes the thieves likely left the area by driving along the Te Horo beach to Peka Peka.
“That would have avoided the CCTV cameras at Te Horo Beach,” he says.
The trailer had been secured not only with the trailer coupling lock bolt, but also a solid wheel lock. It contained work gear that Michael uses for his landscaping business, including tools such as rakes and spades, a large 10m-long folding ladder, a commercial backpack weed sprayer, and a near-new blue Hyundai lawn mower.
“It was all the sort of stuff you need to run a business – gone in a matter of minutes,” Michael says. “Including the trailer, it was probably all worth about $4000.”
The trailer was home built and distinctive with an unusually long drawbar, and gate openings at both the front and rear. The cage was made with metal strips and painted galvanized gray, the floor a rusty red. It had a red coupling handle and new jockey wheel.
The unique trailer design had Michael looking online to see if it was going to be offered for sale.
Within hours he says he saw it for sale on a popular Kāpiti buy/sell Facebook page.
“I thought, wow, that’s mine. There it was, with all its distinctive features. For only $500. A price like that has got to be suspicious.”
He recognised the Waikanae seller as someone who was “known to the police”, and the address also being well known.
He advised the police of the listing, but he says they did nothing to verify whether the trailer for sale was his. The listing was taken down the same day, marked as “sold”.
As of Monday (May 12), Michael said police had “not visited my place, not questioned neighbours, not questioned the person who posted the trailer for sale, and haven’t entered his property to look. It’s frustrating.”
Ōtaki police chief sergeant Phil Grimstone says his team is investigating the incident.
“We have a line of enquiry,” he says.
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