Pre-historic rocks stolen from car

One of the pre-historic rock samples stolen from a vehicle on Saturday night. Photo / NZ Police

Police are investigating after luggage containing some pre-historic rock samples were stolen from a parked vehicle in Mt Eden at the weekend.

The vehicle was broken into between 10pm on February 26 and 6.30 am on February 27 while it was outside a Whitworth Rd property.

The rock samples, some of which were 3.5 billion years old, were wrapped in bags inside the luggage taken from the vehicle, along with some personal items and hard drives.

University researcher Michaela Dobson, who studies the earliest evidence of life on land and possible life on other planets, told the Herald some kind neighbours had found the rocks and luggage dumped nearby.

But her backpack containing an A4 zip lock bag with smaller bags of crushed rock powder linked to some of the earliest evidence of life in the geologic record, her hard drives, some personal mementos and a white Phantom drone were still missing.

"The samples are one of a kind and vital to my research. I worry that people might think it is drugs and snort it. If someone was to inhale it without proper PPE there is a potential for health effects."

She was offering a $100 cash reward for the rocks.

Dobson said the items had been in her car as she had been in the middle of relocating to Christchurch after coming out of a two-week stint in MIQ.

Anyone with information relating to these items is urged to contact Police on 105 or Crime Stoppers anonymously, quoting the file number 220227/2867.