"Someone stoled our bikes," a visibly downcast Brooke Prentice said yesterday.
The 4-year-old was referring to the thief who stole a dozen plastic trikes and a wooden ride-on from the Otago Polytechnic Childcare Centre in Forth St at the weekend.
Centre manager Glenis Whipp, who is to retire next week, said the theft was the first during her 17 years at the centre.
"It's cruel. There has been no consideration for these children."
The theft was revealed on Monday morning when the children opened an unlocked storage shed and there was no sign of the popular yellow trikes, she said.
They were important tools for children's development.
The cost of replacing most of the $60 trikes would come out of parents' fees, with one parent donating a trike, and Kmart a further two.
Preschool staff had searched for the trikes without success, and the theft had been reported to police.
The children will be writing to Santa to ask for the return of the trikes, something that can't happen fast enough for 3-year-old Xanthe McCabe.
"It feels sad because bikes are gone."
