A Tauranga retiree who lost 12 beloved bonsai trees to thieves has been reunited with his "babies".
Richard Fenn featured in Saturday's Bay of Plenty Times after half of his 24 bonsai trees were stolen from his back yard. Read the original story here.
A heartbroken Mr Fenn believed he would never see them again but hours later, 10 of the trees were returned to him by a man who spent $2500 buying them.
"He genuinely bought them from a friend of a friend and was told they were available for sale. He felt bad about the whole thing. The moment he read the article in the paper he rang and said he would be around in 30 minutes."
The man arrived, walked around to the back of the van, opened up the doors "and there were my bonsais", Mr Fenn said.