An Auckland woman has been left heartbroken after thieves stole two wedding dresses and other items from her house at the weekend.
The burglars also stole a cheap television, an old laptop, speakers, jewellery, second-hand shoes and clothes during the break-in at Gloria's Ellerslie house. But it was the theft of one-of-a-kind items that upset her the most.
The thieves took a 10kg bag of sentimental clay beads and two unique wedding dresses from Ghana, one of which was two sheets of fabric and "are just worth nothing to anybody".
"It has been very draining for the wairua," Gloria, who did not want her surname used, told Newshub.
She didn't have contents insurance because her home was full of "freecycled and hand-me-down stuff" which wasn't worth much.
Despite being separated from her ex-husband, she wanted "to pass [the beads] on to my daughter because it represents that she was born out of love and adventure".
Her 17-month-old daughter's whairawa (coin savings) box and future Christmas presents were also taken, including special Barbie dolls.
"I had been searching out bi-racial and dark-skinned Barbie dolls. I had a collection of those wrapped in the cupboard for her - I'm a single mum," she said.
Gloria was house-sitting in Tauranga at the weekend and never would have thought she would be targeted.
"I've got some really good neighbours who were getting my mail and watering my garden, so I had silly faith that it'd be fine."
She was "pretty sure" the burglary happened on Saturday night because the power was switched off and her electricity bill had dropped.
"It was 30 cents on Sunday. That's the base rate for no power use - no water heating. I reckon that's why it must have been done before midnight on Sunday otherwise there would have been a [bigger] charge."
She took to Facebook to share her plight, posting on several community pages including Ōnehunga, Ellerslie and Royal Oak.
A hard-drive containing photos of Gloria's past travels, pregnancy and daughter's birth was also stolen and hadn't been backed up.
It's "probably in the rubbish", she lamented.
"If they realise they can't sell the wedding dress then there's a chance that's in the rubbish too."
A police forensics officer visited the house the next day "and she was lovely," but within 24 hours Gloria got an email saying the case had been closed.
Cash Converters couldn't tell her whether or not recent items that had come in matched the description.
She's just crossing her fingers "someone out there knows" what happened to her precious taonga.
Get in touch at news@newshub.co.nz if you have seen any of Gloria's items.
