BOAT TRIP FOLLOWED THEFT: The truck, nicknamed Buddy, at work in South Wairarapa before being stolen, loaded on to a ship in Napier and sent to the Chatham Islands. PHOTO/WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE
BOAT TRIP FOLLOWED THEFT: The truck, nicknamed Buddy, at work in South Wairarapa before being stolen, loaded on to a ship in Napier and sent to the Chatham Islands. PHOTO/WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE
Police are investigating how "Buddy" the truck was stolen from southern Wairarapa and ended up in the Chatham Islands on a ship from Napier.
The white Hino with a rear-mounted crane disappeared from the yard of Poltech Power Works in Martinborough on the weekend of February 28-March 1, and wasshipped to the Chatham Islands aboard the Southern Tiare out of Napier Port that month.
Private investigators became aware it had been booked for shipping, with a false number plate, even before it had been stolen, says a Wairarapa Times-Age report.
The Chatham Islands' sole police officer was alerted and Buddy was recovered from a farmer/fisherman. It landed back in Napier last week and was returned to Martinborough, where delighted co-owner Darryl Rothery estimated the loss of the truck had cost the company income totalling at least $100,000. It had also put jobs at risk.
"The team are beside themselves," he told the Times-Age. "We definitely had affection for that truck - we always called him Buddy. We are greatly relieved to have him back."
The acting officer-in-charge at the Chathams, usually Wellington-based Constable Tom McBride, told Hawke's Bay Today he expected someone to be charged with receiving stolen property, and to appear in court on August 4.
But no arrests are understood to have yet been made relating to the theft of the truck on the mainland, and how it was moved the 270km to Napier.
