Teen's wardrobe full of stolen goods

An estimated $20,000 haul of stolen property recovered from the bedroom of an 18-year-old Napier youth has been described by police as the "tip of the iceberg" when it came to what was being stolen from cars throughout the city.
Detective Mike Foster of the Napier CIB said the youth was arrested after a search warrant was served on the occupants of a house in Onekawa on Wednesday morning.
What officers discovered in a wardrobe of the youth's bedroom was a treasure trove of stolen goods.
Much of it was packed into zip-up bags and included car stereos, amplifiers, wallets, cellular phones, folders of CDs, tools, books, car parts and even a set of saucepans still in their wrapping.
Police also found a bag of teaching documents and folders, and a couple of passports.
The largest item was a metre-long "boom box" speaker system.
Asked if the parents knew their son had a wardrobe stuffed with thousands of dollars of stolen property Mr Foster replied "they do now".
Police had so far traced five owners of items, and accordingly five charges of theft ex-car had so far been laid.
He now faced the time-consuming task of trying to trace other property owners.
He said the youth used a common operating method among criminals in that he cycled around quiet streets in the middle of the night, equipped with a back-pack and tools to break into a car.
While police were pleased with their latest catch thefts from cars continued at what was described as an "epidemic" rate.
"There are several groups operating out there and some areas are really getting hit," he said.
Theft hot spots in the city were the CBD (particularly the Municipal carpark area), Napier Hill and Onekawa. Police needed the public's help in combating theft ex-cars, Mr Foster said.
Any suspicious activity, including people seen cycling the streets in the dead of night, needed to be reported immediately.
He also asked that anyone with suspicions over where certain property had been obtained could call the Crimeline on 0800 567 789 anonymously.