Police find 12 shipping containers worth of stolen goods

Rodney police say the loot includes scaffolding, appliances, power tools, fireworks and a 30,000-litre water tank. Photo / Supplied

More arrests tipped as rural bust reveals a dozen container-loads of booty.

A huge stash of stolen goods found by police, including scaffolding, dishwashers, fireworks and a 30,000-litre water tank, was so big it took up 12 shipping containers and a few sheds.

The haul, uncovered this week, was thought to be the biggest in Waitemata police district history.

Rodney police believed the loot was from dozens of burglaries carried out across the upper North Island.

A 43-year-old man has already been charged but police expect more arrests after the raid on the Dairy Flat Highway property three days ago.

The stockpile included a range of glamorous and gritty items.

A boat on a trailer, stolen from Huntly, 120km away, was found with motorcycles and quad bikes.

Ovens, vanity units, door hardware, hot-water cylinders and fridge freezers were also found.

So were dozens of bags of cement, "large quantities of fireworks", and a 30,000-litre water tank pinched from rural Waitoki, west of Dairy Flat.

The tank was linked to the house and half full of water, police said.

Power tools including generators, jackhammers, circular saws, drills and water blasters were also found.

Rodney police say the loot includes scaffolding, appliances, power tools, fireworks and a 30,000-litre water tank. Photo / Supplied

Apart from the dozen shipping containers, two horse floats and several outsheds on the property were filled with apparently stolen goods.

Police have been examining the haul since Wednesday.

A surge of construction site and rural burglaries had hit the Rodney area recently, police said. But potentially dozens of burglaries in the wider North Island were the source.

Identifying owners would be a big job. "We anticipate that this news will result in members of the public wanting to call us to check if it's items they've had stolen," said Senior Sergeant Andy King from Rodney police.

"At this stage we're in the process of removing all the property into police storage and then we'll be able to start work on identifying the rightful owners."

Each recovered item had to be meticulously checked to verify serial numbers and establish ownership.

Police pledged to set up a phone number for the surge of calls expected. They've asked people who might have been burgled recently to be patient in the meantime.

"We're committed towards finding the people responsible for this and I'm pleased to say that this development will take us quite some way in our search for the offenders," Mr King said.