A critical component of an Auckland COVID-19 vaccine freezer which was stolen over the weekend has been recovered.
Burglars broke into a Penrose industrial yard at 3:30am on Saturday morning and made off with a copper heat exchanger.
The part was being used to build a freezer that could store well over five million COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Over the weekend the engineering business made a plea for it's return.
"It's just a piece of copper for someone else, but to us, it's something that's going to take another three months to build and slows down the project we're working on," said the business owner, who didn't want to be identified.
On Tuesday morning it was confirmed the heat exchanger had been recovered.
The business owner said the thieves had tried to offload it on the morning they stole it.
