Northland Police hunting elephant sculptures 'on safari'

A man loads a second elephant sculpture into the backseat of this car - the first one is already in the boot. Photo/Supplied

There's an elephant in someone's room, in fact there could be two, and Northland police want help to find out whose.

A post on the Northland Police Facebook page yesterday included three photos from CCTV footage of a vehicle with the boot half shut on an elephant sculpture, and a man loading another elephant into the back seat of a car outside a Thai restaurant on Bank St in Whangarei.

"We are on a bit of a elephant hunt, after this guy decided to take two elephant sculptures on safari," police said.

A restaurant spokeswoman, who did not want to be named, said the sculptures were about 1m tall, and weighed about 20kg.

She said the sculptures had been imported from Thailand and were worth between $2000 and $3000 combined.

The sculptures were decorations outside the restaurant's entrance.

Police said efforts to find the man, the vehicle or the elephants had been unsuccessful since the theft late last month.

Senior Sergeant John Fagan said police did not have any leads on who the man was.