Brett Morrison's home was robbed and thieves took his late wife's jewellry. Photo/George Novak
Brett Morrison's home was robbed and thieves took his late wife's jewellry. Photo/George Novak
The Tauranga community has come out in force to help find widower Brett Morrison's wife's stolen jewellery - even those on the "other side of the law".
While there were no new police leads - the burglars wore gloves, leaving behind no fingerprints, police told Mr Morrison - the community had put their back into helping locate the stolen jewellery.
"My phone has been crazy - a lot of messages from people I've never even met," Mr Morrison said.
"I've also had messages from people on the other side of the law that are not happy with what seems to be a broken code and they have told me they will be actively trying to track Sarah's things down."
He said he did not ask questions about what they did - "they just said they often hear about things that are going on [in the underworld] and if they did they would do their best to get it back for me".
"Whoever can return the jewellery I'm happy with."
Also taken was Mr Morrison's camera, which had photos from a wedding he had photographed in the weekend.
Sarah's rings are among the jewellery stolen from Brett Morrison's Papamoa home. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
After sharing his anger and dismay on Facebook, his post with photos of the stolen jewellery and camera has been shared about 800 times on the social media site.
On the Bay of Plenty Times Facebook page, the article about what happened was shared more than 500 times and the article had been read by more than 3000 people.
"The community has been really supportive."
Mr Morrison said he was feeling hopeful the items would be found.
"Hopefully they just return it through public pressure," he said.
On Tuesday, Mr Morrison left his Papamoa home at 10am and was gone for an hour.
When he returned the ranch slider door was wide open, drawers were open, belongings strewn around and the box he kept his late wife's jewellery in was empty.
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday Mr Morrison said "to them it's just jewellery but to me it's the memories - it's like they've taken a piece of her".
He appealed to the thieves to return the jewellery and camera memory card - "everything else you can keep, I don't care".
Papamoa police have asked anyone with information about the burglary or the whereabouts of the jewellery to call 07 348 0099.
