A couple who had $50,000 of tools stolen from a work vehicle in Christchurch were shocked to find them being auctioned off on behalf of police more than two years later.
Gaston and Louise Monge-Grassi own Piranha Tools in Tasman, which sells building and fine woodworking tools from around the world.
Gaston was staying in Diamond Harbour on a work trip to Christchurch in July 2023 when a thief broke into several cars, including Gaston’s ute.
Hundreds of tools were taken, including Gaston’s toolbelt. The thief left behind only a 10 kilogram sack of onions.
“I found the truck completely open, empty and it was devastating, the feeling was terrible,” Gaston said.
He reported the theft to police and his insurance company and then drove home to Nelson, feeling devastated.
Insurance covered the financial loss but it took three months to replace the missing stock, with many of the tools handmade in Japan and Germany.
As the only seller of several brands in the New Zealand market, Gaston said the tools were easily identifiable. He posted about the theft on social media, with customers promising to keep an eye out for anyone selling them.
He also told police via the 105 line about a CCTV camera pointed at the road where the theft occurred and about one of the items being listed on Facebook marketplace, but only received automated responses.
Then in August, a builder contacted him after spotting some of his tools on TradeMe, listed by Turners Christchurch Trucks & Machinery.
“Some of them, they had the name of our business on because we print them in Germany, it says Piranha Tools,” he said.
The listings mentioned the items were “stolen and recovered”.
Gaston updated the police file with details of the dozens of auctions and unsuccessfully tried to make further contact with police through an officer in Nelson.
In an effort to recover some of his personal tools stolen in the burglary, and to protect his business, Gaston bid on some items.
“I started to buy some of those items back because they were undermining my sales, they were selling new items for $1 reserve and people were bidding on them,” he said.
A friend went to collect the items and told Gaston there were boxes of more tools that were to be listed in the coming weeks and staff told him the items had come from the police.
A second lot of listings were later withdrawn from sale.
Gaston contacted Turners but staff told him they could not give him any information.
Apart from an initial call after the theft, Gaston said he had not had any direct contact from police, despite numerous attempts to get in touch with information about the stolen tools.
“There’s a process, they have to do everything possible to find and contact the owners of the stolen goods. I don’t believe they did that,” he said.
“It just feels like you don’t get any kind of support. The faith … in the police for me is pretty much gone, we pay taxes to just have a good security system in New Zealand and it’s just letting you down.”
Gaston said he had since removed all sign writing from his truck, had installed a better alarm system and no longer parked in public places.
“Something has to change. This is not just us. It’s just about the system,” he said.
What happens when stolen goods are found?
Police have a policy around the disposal of found property, which includes the return of stolen goods to its rightful owner.
The policy said reasonable efforts must be made to promptly identify the property’s owners and return it to them, and stolen and lost property reports must be checked when trying to identify the owners.
Christchurch Tactical Crime Unit Detective Senior Sergeant Stephanie Trengrove said police attempted to identify ownership of seized property through serial numbers, unique markings, or detailed descriptions.
Property might eventually be disposed of if ownership could not be established, Trengrove said.
“In this case, the lack of itemised detail and identifiers made reconciliation with the theft file unfeasible at the time.”
The victims were kept informed during the investigation and advised of the outcomes of various lines of enquiry, until they were exhausted, she said.
“The victims were not contacted when the tools were seized, as the connection between the seized property and the theft file was not established at that time.”
Unclaimed property was sometimes disposed of through approved channels, such as Turners Auctions. Police did not profit from such sales, instead Turners retained a portion as a service fee and the remainder was forfeited to the Crown, she said.
No charges had been laid over the stolen tools, but Trengrove said police were actively working to confirm the identity of the stolen items and, if verified, would engage with the victims regarding potential prosecution.
She said while people should reasonably expect to leave belongings in vehicles without incident, thieves often acted opportunistically and in the past two years, more than 8000 thefts from vehicles had been reported in Canterbury alone.
“Police encourage the public to take proactive steps to protect their property, including avoiding leaving valuable items such as tools, laptops, and handbags in unattended vehicles.”
‘This is our livelihood’
The couple strongly disagree with the police version of events.
Louise Monge-Grassi said it was frustrating to have supplied them with an itemised list of the stolen property, information about the tools on the black market and details of all the auction listings, with no effort made to contact them.
“A large number of the tools had identifying unique markings – our business name – printed on them, they didn’t bother to check,” she said.
“They’ve had the tools, and the list of stolen tools for two years, there’s nothing active about it.”
The couple felt let down by the lack of communication and questioned why someone had not been assigned the case, just to check in with them, Louise said.
“It’s like they want us to disappear and to just give up and unfortunately they’ve chosen the wrong grumpy, overworked, tired couple to mess with because this is our livelihood and we haven’t done anything wrong.”
The couple are in the process of making a complaint to the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
An NZI spokesperson said once a customer was paid out under a claim for stolen items, they were the property of the insurer.
“For other theft or burglary claims, insurers send a letter of interest to the NZ Police notifying them of an interest, should the items be recovered. The NZ Police do their best to then match recovered stolen items against insurer claims.”
NZI typically retained salvage proceeds from sales made from recovered items in settled claims but customers may be entitled to a portion of the proceeds if they were not fully insured or policy limits applied, the spokesperson said.
If there were sentimental or irreplaceable items, a customer could negotiate the return of the recovered items and reimburse the insurer.
In the case of this claim, any unsold tools would be returned to NZI once police confirmed they were from the theft claim made by Piranha Tools.
rnz.co.nz
