Men on mobility scooter flee after taking avocados from family's tree

Two men snapped allegedly harvesting an Auckland resident's avocado tree on a mobility scooter have been reported to the police. Photo / File

Two men snapped allegedly harvesting an Auckland resident's avocado tree on a mobility scooter have been reported to the police.

Bret Glazer, 52, said his wife was in the kitchen at their Sandringham home about 10.30am yesterday when she spotted two men prodding their avocado tree with a stick over the fence.

"There's a park over the fence, and they were on the other side with a long 12ft pole reaching over the fence to pull them out," he said.

Glazer said one of the thieves was on a red mobility scooter.

"I can't believe it. It was probably so they could carry more of them."

His wife, who asked not to be named, went to confront the men.

"They didn't make any comments, they just grunted apparently... They wandered off down the road and my partner followed them while talking to the police on the phone."

She managed to snap photos of them and take their pole.

He said he wasn't sure how many avocados the two men, who looked to be about 60 and could have been locals, had taken.

"They might have been caught before they got any, or they could have had them in a bag."

Police were coming to take fingerprints from the stick, he said.

"We feel violated. It's annoying... If they want some they could knock on the door and ask and we'd probably give them some."

He added it was frustrating as they often gave away their avocados to the community.

"People do some relatively extreme things like put up razor wire [to stop stealing], but I think that's too extreme because of injury it could cause to children or animals.

"I think if people do see any activity like this it's important that they do report it. Social media helps too, then the community can keep an eye out for these characters."

It wasn't the first time the Sandringham couple had been robbed of their avos. The tree was stripped bare one night last November - about 200 avocados were taken.

Coundown is currently selling avocados for $4.50 each.

Police confirmed the incident had been reported to them and they would be making inquiries.