Editorial: The mysteries of theft

Doug Laing, staff reporter, Hawke's Bay Today.

The theft of a Napier man's van and the tools he'll need for work if he can still get there, highlights a gulf in lateral thinking between thieves and their victims.

On one hand is someone making a living out of stealing - on the other someone whose livelihood is seriously threatened because of it.

Yet, we all share the emotions of anger when in the role of victim.

It can be shattering and debilitating, but statistics revealed in a New Zealand Herald series starting today show that despite the technology, the surveillance cameras, and the alert eyes and ears of the public, these crimes continue at an alarming rate.

There were about 2000 crimes of what police call "theft ex-vehicle" in the Napier-Hastings area from mid-2014 to the end of last year, an average of more than two a day, in a country which insurance sources say has one of the highest rates of car theft in the world.

The white van taken from Vigor Brown St overnight on Friday was one of two vehicles police say were unlawfully taken in Napier during the weekend. The other went yesterday afternoon from Caxton St, in the Onekawa residential area.

There was also an attempt to take a vehicle from Hardinge Rd, on the Ahuriri seafront, overnight on Friday.

There may be some exhilaration when the property is found and the thieves are nicked, if the property remains in good working order and is back in place by the time it is next needed, but it is usually cold comfort.

The impact of invasion and loss of sense of security can be profound, on anyone with the misfortune to suffer it, whomever they may be, which begs the simple question: Why would anyone want to do it?

Why, indeed?