Stolen geckos home after being found in custom-built cage

He's a big fat lizard, but Whangarei Museum is contemplating renaming Fat Albert - its forest gecko - Houdini after he twice escaped the clutches of thieves.
Fat Albert returned to his enclosure at the Kiwi House, at Whangarei Museum and Heritage Park, yesterday after he and 25 other endangered  geckos were recovered from the house of a Poroti man on Tuesday.
Seven native forest geckos, four female and three male, were snatched from an enclosure in the Kiwi House at the park between 8pm on June 28 and 9.15am the next day. Thieves jemmied a lock on the enclosure and stole the geckos, four years to the week after another theft of geckos  at the museum on July 5, 2006.
On that occasion, two Northland green geckos and two forest geckos were stolen from the Kiwi House. Fat Albert managed to evade the thieves then, but the  rest were never found.
The other 19 geckos recovered by police on Tuesday - a mixture of green and duvaucel geckos - were stolen from Ti Point Reptile Park, at Leigh, on June 27.
When the museum geckos were stolen, authorities first thought they might be exported, ground up and turned into traditional medicine. Whangarei Museum and Heritage Park director Sue Walters was delighted that had not happened.
"We're just so grateful to Whangarei police, Department of Conservation and the Wildlife Enforcement Group who all did a great job in getting the gecko back," Ms Walters said.
She joked that the museum may have to rename Fat Albert after famed escapologist (Harry) Houdini, given that he had  eluded thieves twice.
"It's definitely good to have Fat Albert and the others back. But one of the good things to come out of this has been Christchurch company Vision Systems is going to install a new, state-of-the-art CCTV system into new Kiwi North building to stop any future thefts," she said.
 Four of the stolen museum geckos had been in quarantine,  awaiting  transfer to Limestone Island.
Stuart Williamson, of the multi-agency Wildlife Enforcement Group - made up of Department of Conservation, Customs and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officials - said it was wonderful to get all the geckos back.

"This is a very good result and police did a great job," he said. "The ones stolen from the museum four years ago weren't recovered and we don't know what happened to them, so it's nice that we can take these ones back to the museum."

Mr Williamson said  a maximum fine of $100,000, plus up to $5000 for each creature or egg, or six month's jail, showed the Government took a dim view of such thefts.
 
Police said they found the 26 geckos in a specially designed enclosure in the house of a man at Poroti on Tuesday evening.
Justin Mathew Howes, 19, from Poroti, appeared in Whangarei District Court yesterday facing two charges of burglary.
Howes was remanded in custody until July 12.