Gt Barrier Beekeeper offers $10,000 reward for stolen Toyota Land Cruiser

A Great Barrier Island beekeeper is offering a $10,000 reward for the recovery of a Toyota Land Cruiser stolen from outside a shop in Penrose.

Kim Watts, who runs a bee business in Great Barrier, said he had sent the vehicle to Auckland to get a warrant of fitness and collect food for the bees.

But, someone decided to help themselves to the ute sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning.

"This morning what we found were just glass on the ground, so the window must have been smashed."

Watts said the vehicle was used by his wife Nikki, who is the head bee keeper, and is used to transport food to 300 hives.

"We feed our bees with a seaweed mix and sugar supplement, and the seaweed mix was on the vehicle when it was stolen," he said.

"It is a much loved and essential part of our operations, and without it our two million bees could starve."

Watts said he was offering a $10,000 reward because the 2005, five-speed manual truck was "fit for purpose" and would be very hard to replace.

It has a distinctive extra large custom pro deck, with recycled kauri sides, and a tool box on the drivers side rear under deck with missing alloy covers.

"We know it was taken from Maurice Rd between last night and the early hours of this morning," he said.

"It was booked to carry bee feed and rosemary plants and due to return to Great Barrier on Saturday. We are pleading for people to help recover the vehicle because our livelihoods depend on it."

Police confirmed it received a report that a vehicle was stolen from outside an address in Penrose between 5.30pm Thursday and 8am Friday morning.

"Enquiries are ongoing to locate," a police spokeswoman said.