Brazen burglar even cut open teens' money boxes

Burglars cut open these money boxes, taking almost $600 worth of savings from the home of Iyla Bradley (4) and Anna Harris-Rhodes (15). Photo / Stephen Jaquiery

Two Dunedin teenagers lost almost $600 in cash when their home was burgled.

Acting Senior Sergeant Trevor Thomson, of Dunedin, said the offenders entered the property in Helensburgh Rd, near Wakari Rd in Helensburgh, and took two money boxes, some jewellery and a house key.

Mother of the teenagers Kathryn Harris-Bradley said she suspected the burglary happened during the day while she was home on Wednesday or Thursday last week

''The most upsetting thing is someone must have been here while we were home.''

Two of her daughters, aged 15 and 18, had lost a combined $580 in savings contained in their money boxes.

A cherished piece of pounamu belonging to Harris-Bradley was also taken, and the money boxes were cut open with a can opener stolen from the kitchen. Police had been able to take a ''nice clean set of prints'' from inside the lid of the money boxes, she said.

Harris-Bradley said her 15-year-old daughter Anna was distraught to lose the more than $300 she had saved, largely from money given by relatives for birthdays and for Christmas.

The Kavanagh College pupil and fashion devotee had been diligently saving to attend the World of Wearable Art show in Wellington later this year.

The other daughter who also had her savings swiped, 18-year-old Olivia, had been putting loose change, saved by avoiding junk food, in her tin.

''She hadn't processed how upset she was until she saw the tin.''

While the insurance company would not replace the money, relatives had been ''topping up'' some of the lost cash.

Harris-Bradley said she suspected the offenders had entered the home through a laundry door and sneaked around the bedrooms, stealing her daughters' money and her jewellery, before taking a house key and escaping towards a row of trees near a stream below her property.

She had regularly seen two men in the area acting suspiciously, and she planned to approach them if she saw the pair again.

The locks on the property have since been changed.