A bride-to-be was robbed of her wedding invitations while she and her bridal party dined only metres away and chatted about the big day.
Primary teacher Rebekah Prattley, 27, flew to Auckland from Gore on Sunday to meet up with bridesmaids Olivia Weaver, Tracey Wistrand (who had travelled from London)
and Ruth Nixon.
The friends went out for dinner and left a black reusable shopping bag holding 250 embossed invitations, personalised stamps, envelopes, guest lists and a special wedding scrapbook on the front seat of Ms Nixon's white Honda Civic parked outside.
"The invites were in little boxes that my computer modem came in so they might have thought, 'Ooh, that looks like computer stuff,"' Ms Prattley told the Herald. "It's not what you want to happen when you're planning and saving for a wedding."
In January, the primary teacher will marry Fraser Gulliver, whom she has known since childhood, at a large church service in Gore.
"We are both children of seven and Fraser's mum is one of 12 so there are a lot of people travelling to it."
Ms Prattley said the bridal party, all teachers aged in their late 20s, took their time having dinner at the Lone Star restaurant in Great South Rd in Manukau on Sunday night.
"We hadn't caught up for a long time so we were the last ones in the restaurant," Ms Prattley said. "It was probably about 10.45pm when we left."
And when they emerged, the car was empty. A bag of Ms Prattley's clothes and jewellery had also been taken - bringing the combined value of the theft to about $1000.
"So I had to go and buy undies, the lot, for the next three days I was up there."
She said thieves might have thought the car was parked up for the night.
"I'm pretty sure if they knew we were right inside, they wouldn't have been that gutsy," Ms Prattley said.
Having taught in Manurewa for several years, she knew about South Auckland's crime rates and said she "hoped it wasn't one of [her] students".
Ms Prattley could not understand what use the wedding items would be to anyone else and had a plea for the person who had them.
"Please drop it somewhere. I say a police station but I don't know if people who have robbed would do that."
