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Home / New Zealand

Lions fans get their stolen backpacks back

Vera Alves
By Vera Alves
NZ Herald Planning Editor and Herald on Sunday columnist·NZ Herald·
21 Jul, 2017 02:43 AM2 mins to read

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The children were very happy to hear their journals had been recovered. Photo / Instagram/Ria Leighton

The children were very happy to hear their journals had been recovered. Photo / Instagram/Ria Leighton

A family of British and Irish Lions supporters will be reunited with backpacks stolen from them from a car park in Auckland during their New Zealand trip.

The Leighton family is on a six-month round the world trip and the children had been writing a journal and collating a scrapbook of their travels. The precious items were stolen when their backpacks were taken from their car in Auckland earlier this month.

Now in the US, the family has been contacted by Auckland police to inform them that the backpacks had been returned this week.

A few items, including father Max Leighton's camera, have not been found, but the family is happy to have their children's precious memories back.

Max and Maria Leighton travelled to New Zealand with their children Xander, 10, and Scarlett, 8, to follow the Lions.

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View this post on Instagram

Woohoo. Finally some good news for the Leighton's. Auckland police phoned and the kids rucksacks have been handed in #goodnews #thanks #auckland #newzealand #lionsnz2017 #leightonadventures

A post shared by Maria Leighton (@rialeighton) on Jul 19, 2017 at 6:19pm PDT

The family found their rental car vandalised in an Auckland carpark earlier in July. Their belongings were missing, there were faeces beside the vehicle and a mess of food had been left all over the car.

The Leightons left New Zealand with little hope of ever seeing their belongings but have now been given the good news that the children's backpacks are on their way to them.

The theft is still being investigated by police.

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