An Auckland police superintendent has struggled to explain why sensitive firearm documents were not shredded in an interview with AM on Thursday.
The sensitive documents were being stored inside the dilapidated and disused former Auckland City police station where staff no longer work.
The documents - including names and possibly the types of firearms they had - had been stored at the old station since last year in a bin destined for the shredder.
The documents were supposed to be destroyed, but never were. Police only realised they were stolen after finding them during an unrelated search of a property in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert.
Auckland District Commander, Superintendent Karyn Malthus told AM on Thursday it was too easy for the burglary to occur.
"It should not have been that easy for a burglar to take those papers," she told AM co-host Ryan Bridge.
"So there have been errors in the handling of that destruction bin without doubt and I am looking into that to understand what happened so we can make sure that doesn't happen again."
Malthus said they still don't know exactly how many firearm owners have been affected but warn it could be hundreds.
"It will be in the tune of a few hundred [people] and we are working our way through that," she said.
"So there are thousands of pieces of paper in that bin and as we pull those out and try to marry them together and trying to understand what documents relate to which."
The stolen documents relate to firearm owners or those getting renewals between 2015 and 2017 in central Auckland.
Expired pepper spray was also taken, along with police uniforms and copper piping in what Supt Malthus is calling an "opportunistic" break-in.
"Burglars can be very opportunistic and I don't believe the burglar was there looking for papers, the burglar was there looking for copper piping and has come across some other items," she said.
Supt Malthus said they're still working through the time frame of when the burglary occurred, but they believe it started in early May.
Four people have been charged over the robbery.
Gun owner Darcy Krissansen, who had his gun safe and his four firearms stolen in 2020, believes there needs to be more precautions around locking firearms away.
"I think what piqued our interest a little bit is the fact Bernadine [Oliver-Kerby] mentioned that if a firearm is locked away it's safe, which I think is probably in most people's minds but it's not always the case," gun owner Darcy Krissansen told AM.
"I think it's a bit of a misnomer people thinking firearms are safe if they're locked away, so there need to be more precautions around that."
Krissansen warned gun owners once burglars know you have firearms inside your property, they'll find a way to steal them.
"I've been told by other people who are involved in this sort of thing, once they know it's in there it's like gold to them, they'll break in and get them," he said.
"I've heard of cases of collectors with lots of firearms and the criminals have taken a lot of time and effort to break into rooms to get all the weapons."
