An Auckland man robbed of around $25,000 worth of fishing gear and tools has found some of his stolen stuff for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
He even knows the seller's address, so has reported it to police.
The dad-of-three, who lives in the Auckland suburb of Northcote, woke on the morning of April 24 to do some leaf-blowing, but his leaf blower was missing. On closer inspection, his entire garage had been cleaned out.
"I was shocked and gutted. Unbelievable. I mean, no-one had heard anything. I rang my partner to see what was going on, but we pretty quickly figured out we'd been robbed."
The stolen items included 11 high-spec fishing rod and reels, camping gear, and thousands of dollars' worth of tools he'd collected over more than a decade.
Then, just six hours after he realised his stuff was missing, he found some of it listed on Facebook Marketplace. He reported it to Facebook, who simply took the listing down. Back to square one.
"That was frustrating. Reporting it destroyed the post, and so the evidence. There needs to be a way of reporting specifically stolen items," he said.
But the thieves tried again. He found a second Facebook Marketplace listing, where his $700 fishing rod was listed for sale with an asking price of $120. The same seller was also flogging off his Stihl charger.
A fellow fisher contacted the seller, asking for a price and address for the Stihl charger, and bingo - he'd found the seller's address on the other side of Auckland, in One Tree Hill.
They've taken the detective work into their own hands.
"It's frustrating. It's like, here's proof, here's the address. No detective work required. Me and the fishing community have done it for them [the police]."
He says people from the online fishing community have also offered to visit the address with him to retrieve the stolen goods, but he doesn't want to drag anyone else into potential danger.
Waitematā East Police's Inspector Mike Rickards told Newshub police empathise with victims of burglary, particularly when valuables are taken.
However, he advised victims against taking matters into their own hands, especially in approaching possible addresses of interest.
"It is imperative that police carry out a proper process for any potential prosecution. We will continue to keep the victim updated directly on progress in this matter."
Insp Rickards said enquiries into the burglary were ongoing.
"A Scene of Crime officer attended the following day to explore for any forensic lines of enquiry. At that time there were no further forensic opportunities at the scene," he said.
"However, we acknowledge the victim has since provided additional information around property listed on social media. We will assess this along with any other additional information for the next appropriate steps to be taken.
"In general, any information obtained through enquiries or provided by victims need to be assessed to ensure is sufficient to obtain a search warrant."
