Marion van Dijk/Stuff
A small community in Taranaki is seeing an increase in burglaries and car thefts.
Car thefts and burglaries in South Taranaki are on the rise and may be linked, police say.
In the past two weeks, Deputy Sergeant of the South Taranaki Police Department, Ben Patterson, has noticed an increase in burglaries, stolen vehicles and car thefts.
Patterson said there was a chance the burglaries and auto thefts in the Hāwera area could be linked.
“It appears to have been more than a dozen unfair fouls in the past two weeks.
READ MORE:
* Bottle shop ram attack follows series of burglaries that netted about $30,000 worth of smoke
* Four car thefts, one arrest in South Taranaki
* Italy comes to Pukekohe for Sunday’s Christmas parade
“Probably more unannounced,” he said.
In the past two weeks, South Taranaki had nine burglaries and three times as many people had stolen gasoline from tanks on rural farms, he said.
A volunteer from South Taranaki Community Patrol agreed with the worrying image.
Marianne Forsyth, who had been part of the community patrol for two and a half years, said there had been an increase in thefts from construction sites, where whole loads of roofing had been stolen.
The group of patrol volunteers covered special areas and gave police “extra eyes and ears,” she said.
While she hadn’t seen the incidents firsthand, Forsyth said burglaries and antisocial behavior were on the rise.
“We are making reassuring visits to as many dairy farms in the Hāwera area as possible due to the increase in threatening behavior towards dairy farmers and employees.”