Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Mystery of pole cemented into Tauranga teacher’s driveway solved

Sandra Conchie
By Sandra Conchie
Multimedia Journalist, Bay of Plenty Times·Bay of Plenty Times·
1 Aug, 2023 06:29 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Sophie Hucker arrived home to find a pole had been cemented into her driveway.

Sophie Hucker arrived home to find a pole had been cemented into her driveway.

Nearly a week after Tauranga teacher Sophie Hucker came home to a pole cemented into her driveway, the whodunnit has been solved.

Hucker returned to her Ōtūmoetai home from work last Tuesday to a square, metal pole, more than two metres tall, in front of her garage.

The target="_blank">Bay of Plenty Times reported she checked with a neighbour and the council, to no avail, and posted on local social media, where people were as eager for answers as she was.

Before the Mount Maunganui College teacher left for work the next day, she left a note with her phone number on the pole. It said: “I have no idea what this is doing here - please call me!”

She ruled out theories such as it being a “random gift”, an expensive prank, or a sign she should just get a carport, but concluded the most likely answer was that “some tradies made a big stuff-up”.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Turns out, she was right.

Today she told the Bay of Plenty Times a local company had come forward to admit its mistake.

She said someone from the company left a message “taking ownership” of the error and asking for her to call back.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Hucker said she learned the pole was meant to be part of a gate being installed at another property on her street.

The note Sophie Hucker left on the pole someone cemented into her driveway.
The note Sophie Hucker left on the pole someone cemented into her driveway.

“I didn’t ask for all the details and I’m not sure exactly how this happened but people are only human and mistakes do happen,” she said.

She understood the company had come forward after seeing media coverage of the story.

“I don’t feel any ill-feeling towards the worker or company responsible for this muddle.”

Hucker said the pole was removed by the time she returned home about 4pm yesterday and the area where the pole had been erected had been re-concreted.

She said the company had promised to come back to water blast the concrete to make it look better.

Sophie Hucker arrived home to find a pole had been cemented into her driveway.
Sophie Hucker arrived home to find a pole had been cemented into her driveway.

Hucker declined to name the company or give details about it because she did not want to “ruin their reputation”.

She said it had been a bit annoying to have to manoeuvre around the pole, but the mystery had given many people a chuckle, including herself, and she was taking the mistake in that spirit.

Taking to the Facebook community group where she made her original post tonight, she said she never thought the story “would blow up like it has”.

She said the company involved was “laughing about it after seeing it on the news before they realised it was their bad”.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She said it had given her some bubbles and was “very aPOLEgetic”.

Hucker said the patch in her driveway would be “a reminder of my 15 minutes”.

“What a ride that was.”

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.



Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.



Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

'I wept': White Island tragedy doctor’s anguish at child’s death

17 Jun 05:00 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Hot-box' murder: Accused says rival gang bigger issue than patched member's theft

17 Jun 07:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

On The Up: Pie-fecta - Pie King's trainees claim top prizes in apprentice showdown

17 Jun 03:00 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

'I wept': White Island tragedy doctor’s anguish at child’s death

'I wept': White Island tragedy doctor’s anguish at child’s death

17 Jun 05:00 PM

The young doctor started a rotation training in intensive care on the day of the disaster.

'Hot-box' murder: Accused says rival gang bigger issue than patched member's theft

'Hot-box' murder: Accused says rival gang bigger issue than patched member's theft

17 Jun 07:00 AM
On The Up: Pie-fecta - Pie King's trainees claim top prizes in apprentice showdown

On The Up: Pie-fecta - Pie King's trainees claim top prizes in apprentice showdown

17 Jun 03:00 AM
'Stars in the sky': Mountaintop Matariki ceremony to honour lost loved ones

'Stars in the sky': Mountaintop Matariki ceremony to honour lost loved ones

17 Jun 12:00 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP