Next one gets it in the guts

Kaitaia pensioner Clyde Korach has had a "gutsful" of burglars, and he doesn't have much more regard for the police.

Seventy-six-year-old Mr Korach said last week that his faith in the police had fallen to below zero since his home was burgled last month, and that he would be ready for the next intruder. He had a garden fork under his bed and a butcher's knife in his drawer, and the next person who broke into his home would "get it in the guts."

"He'll be leaking before he gets out of here," he said.

Mr Korach's views on crime and law enforcement had hardened by the time he talked to the Age last week, two weeks to the day since someone climbed through a window into the bedroom where he was sleeping, taking a 32-inch television set from that room. They also took his wallet a new pair of shoes, keys, two five-litre containers of petrol and his 2006 Ford Courier ute. All up he put his loss at near $28,000.

He phoned 111 when he woke, at around 7am, and was told that he could expect to see a police officer in the next day or two. He then left a message at the Kaitaia police station, and an officer turned up about two hours later.

An effort was made to find fingerprints, but since then he had not heard a word or seen a police officer. Nor had his neighbours.

"We're all retired around here," he said, his immediate neighbours in the quiet cul de sac ranging in age from the early 80s to the 90s. None of them had been asked if they had seen or heard anything, none had been given any reassurance, and all were now badly frightened.

He couldn't understand why no police officer had ever set foot in his immediate neighbourhood, apart from the one who responded to his burglary. Nor did he understand why the police didn't put up a neon sign at the station saying 'We're going on call now, the town is yours.'

"By the time they got here my truck could have been in Auckland, or Whangarei, or Parapara, or Ahipara, or on the beach," he said.

"They just pass the buck. They tell you to call your insurance company, but I'm still not going to get back everything that's been taken."

Last week he had seen a couple of local police officers sitting in a car on Grigg's Corner, watching vehicles pass through the stop sign into North Road. He asked the driver if there had been any progress with his burglary investigating, the other officer laughing.

"Then they proceeded to catch a ute that drove through the stop sign. It took two fullahs to give him a ticket," he said.

"With all their traffic stops, who's working on crime?

I told two cops my truck was seen heading in a certain direction, but they didn't ask any questions. You can't tell me they're on the ball.

"They catch a kid lighting a fire at the mill. Big deal. When are they going to catch the people who burgled my home while I was asleep?"

Mr Korach said he had spoken to at least 40 people since he was burgled, and not one of them had expressed any faith in the police.

"I don't want to criticise the police, but they don't give me much option," he added.

"Someone is going to get killed, not if but when. We're getting to the stage where people will arm themselves. It's time we started fighting fire with fire.

"I know [the police] have a [difficult] job, but they're not giving us a fair go. Why don't they put a couple of cars in Bonnett Road and Grigg Street and catch [the thieves] as they're going home? They know where these people live. Don't just put it on the insurance companies."

Meanwhile he had received a phone call from Victim Support on Wednesday last week, 13 days after the burglary.

"I gave her a mouthful," he said.