Home burglars net $425,000

By PAUL YANDALL

Auckland police are investigating one of the largest residential burglaries in New Zealand - a $425,000 theft from an Orakei home.

The burglars evaded an extensive home security system to steal a small safe from the bedroom wardrobe of the Tuhaere St home.

Inside the safe was jewellery, cash and passports. None of it was insured.

The 12 items of jewellery included a gold-encased diamond valued at $94,000, earrings valued at $6000 each and necklaces and bracelets. The burglary occurred in August.

The passports were found in a creek on the North Shore three weeks later but police have not yet been able to track down the jewellery or cash. None of the jewellery had been photographed.

The head of the east Auckland burglary squad, Detective Sergeant Mata John, said the theft was one of the largest residential burglaries she had heard of. "It's quite a lot in anybody's language."

Officers investigating the case said they believed more than one thief was involved because of the weight of the stolen safe.

The burglary occurred while the home's occupants, recent immigrants from Hong Kong, were away for the weekend.

The burglars are believed to have driven into the area at dusk on August 5 to watch houses on the street turn on their lights and hence indicate whether anyone was home.

They then climbed over the electric gates of the empty home, shimmied up an exterior pillar and disconnected the burglar alarm from an outside control box.

They then broke into the home's upstairs main bedroom and stole the safe from a wardrobe before carrying it out. Nothing else was taken.

The safe even left a huge indentation in the driveway, smashing the concrete where it landed after the burglars threw it over the gates.

The insurance manager for the Insurance Council, John Lucas, said the amount stolen was "astronomical" compared to the average household raid.

"It's a surprise that so much has been taken but burglars are targeting small, expensive items that can be carried on the run."

He was not surprised the householders did not have insurance. Many people didn't.

The burglary is not NZ's largest residential theft. Between $500,000 and $750,000 worth of antique furniture was stolen from a house in the Wairarapa in the 1970s, said Detective Sergeant Tony Smith of Wellington police.

Although the Auckland burglary was a large hit, police said the 2003 burglaries in the city's eastern suburbs in the year to June 30 represented a drop of 8.5 per cent on the previous year.