Two men face burglary charges after allegedly stealing a “large volume” of jewellery and designer items in Hamilton and Auckland.
The men — aged 41 and 37 — are facing 37 charges of burglary “with more charges likely”, police said.
“The 37 charges relate to burglaries that have occurred since May this year, however we believe that this offending in the Hamilton and Auckland areas dates back further.
“Some of these items have then been on-sold,” Detective Senior Sergeant Ian Foster said.
Last Friday, police executed two search warrants at properties in the Rototuna and Huntly areas.
“At the first property, a large volume of stolen goods was located, with bags of pearls, rings, necklaces — sometimes whole jewellery boxes full of items, and large amounts of gold.
“At the second property police located a raft of stolen items including a rubbish sack full of designer bags,” Foster said.
“Alongside jewellery and heirlooms at both properties were watches, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and Prada handbags, and Givenchy and Hermes items in original packaging.
“There was also a large array of other heirlooms and jewellery that no doubt has significance and value to their owners, the victims of the burglaries.”
It’s a “large volume” of recovered items for police to work through, Foster continued.
“We are currently in the process of informing the victims that have been identified and we are still arranging for the return of some precious items.
“It is a really great result to be able to recover this volume of stolen items and make these arrests.
“A lot of hard work has gone into this investigation by our teams and there is a lot more hard work to come.
“We will continue to work our way through the items attempting to identify and return all the jewellery which will have significant sentimental value to the victims of these burglaries.”
The pair appeared in Hamilton District Court on Saturday and were remanded in custody to reappear this week.