Cross was distraught after a decades-old whalebone tiki, which had belonged to her late father, Joseph Cross, was taken from her car during a smash-and-grab burglary in Western Springs last Tuesday.
The loss was reported to Western Springs College, along with police, and when the school ran a bulletin about it the result was almost immediate.
A group of boys reported to the principal this morning that they had seen a tiki hanging from a tree off Moa Rd, a couple of kilometres from the crime scene. They led the principal to the tree and he phoned Cross. "He just had to say it had a curved back and I knew it was my tiki," she said.
Cross went straight to a bank and withdrew $1000, which had been promised for the tiki's return, before going to meet the principal and the boys.
They were aged between 13 and 15, three were Maori and one of them had said he didn't want to touch the tiki as it may have been an indication of tapu in the area.
The boys split the money five ways and are likely to get free tickets to Auckland's Christmas in the Park, which Cross is a part of on Saturday week.
Meanwhile, the tiki will get its own treatment.
"I am waiting for a Maori woman... who is about to come and bless the tiki. I feel I need to dissipate any negative energy that may have surrounded it in the past week before I can wear it again," she told NZPA. "I shall be guarding it with my life in the future."
Cross said she spoke to a psychic last night, who told her she would find the tiki soon and that it was nearby.
"I have your father here. He has his sleeves rolled up and he is very angry," the psychic had told her.
Cross said she could imagine her father in that pose with his anger directed at the thieves, and while some might raise their eyebrows at the comments, she was superstitious enough to have taken comfort from them. She said she had been bothered and "out of sorts" for the past week, but was ecstatic at today's developments and didn't believe there was any connection between the theft and the young reward recipients.
"Either way, I don't care. They had the decency to come to the principal and say 'we know where it is'." Cross also lost other items in the raid, including her wallet, which was later found dumped with money missing.
