The empty box at the Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club after the theft of a defibrillator - one of at least four such thefts in Napier in the last three weeks.
Four community defibrillators installed in Napier for use in the event of sudden heart attacks in public have been stolen.
The spate has been revealed after the discovery of a theft from a box at the entrance of the Hawke’s Bay Sports Fishing Club, on Nelson Quay Ahuriri, where club
manager Neil Price says it was installed by the club on the outside of the premises two years ago so it could be used by the general public if needed.
“If it was just for members, we wouldn’t have put it on the outside,” he said.
It has since been learned defibrillators have also been stolen a few hundred metres from outside the Napier Sailing Club and the Bluewater Hotel’s sports bar, and from Roslyn Rd, Bluff Hill.
It is not the first time such thefts have happened in Napier - in December 2021, there was a burglary at Napier’s Pacific Surf Lifesaving Club in which two fast-response life packs, an oxygen bottle and five radios were stolen.
