Preying on trust

Sophie Bond discovers quaint St Heliers Bay has been plagued by a spate of thefts recently - and not even a hospice shop is immune.
There is a gaping hole in the ceiling, another fist-sized hole through a wall and chisel marks around the lock on the office door.
The Dove Hospice Shop, on St Heliers Bay Rd, has been open only five months and a carefully planned break-in has left staff and customers stunned.
Operations manager Warren Finlay describes what happened on the night of February 3: "The thieves cut a hole in the roof with a sabre saw and dropped down through the roof.
"They obviously knew our alarm system - which has since been changed - as they kept low and avoided setting it off. So they only took what they could reach from ground level: our donations jar and some brand new socks."
Mr Finlay believes the break-in was well organised. The thieves came armed with a saw, a ladder, and prior knowledge of the alarm system.
"They didn't manage to steal much. It's an inconvenience more than anything else. We had to shut for half a day while we waited for the police," says Mr Finlay.
Temporary repairs have been made to the roof and ceiling panels will be replaced.
The shop's volunteers are devastated by the theft and especially shocked that a charity shop had been singled out.
"Why would people want to target a shop that's there for the good of the community?"
The Dove shop caused ripples in the retailing community when it opened, with some shopkeepers saying they were less than pleased that a charity
secondhand store had opened in the plum strip.
However, theft from retailers has been an unwelcome feature of the small St Heliers community over the past month.
On the day of the Dove shop robbery, a nearby jeweller called police after noticing two women behaving suspiciously in the store.
Two weeks after this another local business was robbed, this time in the middle of the day. Marianne Watson is a co-owner of Body Action fashion boutique on Turua St.
She was working alone in the shop when two Polynesian women came in.
"One of them asked me to go out with her to the sales rack while the other one grabbed my handbag from behind the counter."
Mrs Watson realised her bag was missing shortly afterwards and called police. The thieves then called her, claiming to be the bank reporting action on her stolen credit card. Believing the call to be genuine, Mrs Watson gave the details asked of her.
Thousands of dollars were taken from her account before her real bank picked up the large transaction and it became clear she had been conned by the thieves.
Anyone with information about the incidents at St Heliers, can contact: Senior Sergeant Graeme Porter, ph 524 1910.