Source: New Zealand Police
It was smiles, not tears, at the departure gate as a Police reunited a German tourist with his stolen belongings.
A car break-in earlier this week threatened a sour-end to the tourist’s trip down under.
On 19 November, he reported to the front counter at the Auckland Central Police Base on Federal Street.
“At some point during the previous night the tourist’s rental car parked on Crummer Road, Grey Lynn was broken into,” Inspector Grae Anderson, Auckland Central Area Commander says.
“His backpack was taken, which contained various valuable electronics, his passport, and German bank cards.”
While he was making the report the front counter staff discovered the man had an AirTag attached to his property.
“Enquiries led Police to an address in Wiri,” Inspector Anderson says.
“With this information the City Area Prevention Team put together a search warrant, which was executed by Auckland Central Tactical Crime Unit with the help of Beat Section staff.”
The search recovered almost all of the tourist’s stolen property, including his laptop, digital camera, a drone, passport, German IDs and bank cards.
“During the search officers also located a large amount of unrelated cash and ammunition,” Inspector Anderson says.
Further enquiries led officers to locate the tourists backpack discarded in a skip bin at a nearby service station in Manukau.
“In the same bin we located other suitcases and travel bags, which did not belong to the German tourist,” says Inspector Anderson.
“We are currently working to identify additional victims and return the belongings to their rightful owners.”
The recovered property was returned to the grateful tourist at Auckland Airport as he waited for his flight out of New Zealand.
“We are pleased to be able to get his belongings back before he left the country,” Inspector Anderson says.
“He might have had a bad experience but being able to put that right is pleasing for our staff and I am proud of the combined effort it took to get his property returned.”
A 41-year-old man appeared in the Auckland District Court on 20 November charged with theft-ex car and unlawfully possessing ammunition. He was remanded in custody to reappear on 11 December.
ENDS.
Amanda Wieneke/NZ Police
