Whanganui family offers reward for return of precious heirlooms

Emily Dixon says the items were stored in a cupboard and not visible from outside her father’s house. Photo / Mike Tweed

Heirlooms stolen from the house of a man who recently died are not worth much monetarily but mean everything to his family, his daughter says.

Whanganui resident Emily Dixon is offering a no-questions-asked reward if a kilt, a set of classic Hornby trains and a surfboard are returned.

She said her late grandfather, former Whanganui Herald and Whanganui Chronicle racing editor Jack Glengarry, had the kilt made in the 1950s while he was on a tutorship in Scotland.

The kilt, plus its sporran and socks, was passed down to his son, Dixon’s father Craig Glengarry.

Craig Glengarry died of a heart attack in May.

Dixon said she had stored the items in a cupboard and they were not visible from outside her father’s house.

“Obviously, people have broken in because they’ve noticed no one was living in it.

“They stole the whole get-up except the tie, which I buried with my dad.”

Her father and uncle used to play with the trains when they were young and her uncle, who had come from Auckland to pick them up, was “absolutely gutted”, she said.

“I have all the boxes and the tracks so I don’t think they stole them to make money, otherwise they would have taken everything.

“They actually had it all stacked up ready to come back and get.”

Jack Glengarry wearing the kilt, sporran and socks for a Whanganui Chronicle article in 1996.

She said the kilt was a valuable taonga for her family but “of no interest to anyone else”.

“I’m in charge of it and I didn’t protect it. I should have brought it home.”

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The surfboard was custom-made for her father and had a red spiderweb pattern on the front, Dixon said.

“It’s shorter and wider than your standard surfboard, and hard to ride unless you’re pretty good.”

A $300 reward is being offered until December 10 if the items are returned to the Whanganui Anglican Parish office at 243 Wicksteed St. It is open 10am-2pm Tuesday to Friday.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.