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Burglars who downed a beer during a break-in at a Christchurch heritage park could find it is their undoing.
A bottle was consumed during the burglary of Ōtautahi Tree Recovery at Ferrymead Heritage Park, which police took for DNA testing to see if it matches anything on their database.
Ōtautahi Tree Recovery was one of four businesses based at the heritage park broken into two weeks ago — likely by the same offenders.
Police say three offenders used a white Ford utility. They were captured on the park’s CCTV cameras wheeling equipment through the park.
Ōtautahi Tree Recovery co-owner Rob Neville said the burglars took $35,000 of equipment over three nights. It has been able to keep operating due to the generosity of the community.
When he went to work at 9am on a recent Tuesday, he found the garage roller door open and the workshop in a total mess.
"It was like a crime scene where the thieves had just carelessly gone through stuff,” he said.
What he did not immediately realise, the offenders were still at the heritage park.
After discovering the break-in, Neville notified the heritage park.
A worker from Goldfield Stone, another business at the park, approached Neville and said some of his missing equipment was under a tree.
But when the two got there, some of that equipment had gone.
“In that moment we clicked ‘oh it’s (burglary) still in progress’,” Neville said.
Neville called 111 and put the remaining stolen equipment by the tree into the Goldfield Stone worker’s vehicle.
While he was on the phone with police, a white ute pulled up about 200-300m away. The ute came and went about fives times before it drove off, about 10 minutes before police arrived.
Ōtautahi Tree Recovery was set up at Ferrymead in May to rescue, process and repurpose felled or fallen trees from across Christchurch. It is part of Revival Projects, a business Neville and his wife Stephanie set up in Melbourne in 2016.
The offenders took Stihl chainsaws, Makita mitre saws, a Dewalt table saw and Thicknesser, a Festool track saw and orbital sander, and one red and one silver tool box with vintage hand tools.
Luckily, the main timber sawmill was not stolen, their most essential piece of equipment, Neville said.
The burglars broke into Goldfield Stone, leaving stone masonry equipment nearby. But they did not come back in time to take it all away.
General manager Glenn Morris said replacements and repairs would cost about $15,000. It was covered by insurance.
A brass tap was taken from Ferrymead Golf, and the post office at the park was also broken into but nothing was taken.
Neville described the break-in as “invasive”. He was depressed for about a week, but community help had pulled him back up.
He was flooded by messages of support and offers to borrow equipment, which has enabled the initiative to keep going.
"It hasn’t diminished our faith in community, if anything, the opposite is true. The way the community rallied around and reached out was really heartening,” he said.
More security cameras and a new alarm have been put in.
Police are investigating the incident, a spokesperson said.
They also said a white Ford ute was used by the three alleged offenders.
- Anyone who saw suspicious activity around Ferrymead Heritage Park on August 17 or 18, or may have CCTV footage of the area, is asked to contact police on 105 and reference 260818/9317.