Red-stickered homes targeted by burglars in Auckland

When Robyn and her three children had to flee their home as torrential rain pummelled Auckland at the end of January, she didn’t think things could get much worse.

Then, she discovered her red-stickered home had been ransacked by burglars.

Robyn is one of thousands of New Zealanders whose homes were red-stickered by local councils after unprecedented weather wreaked havoc across the country over the past month.

So long as a red sticker is in place, entry to a building is prohibited, leaving homes around the motu vulnerable to break-ins.

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Stuff has agreed not to use Robyn’s surname or address to protect the future security of her home.

On January 27, Robyn, her partner and their three children were forced to evacuate their home in Remuera when a landslide caused the cliff behind their house to collapse.

“It was all so quick, we hardly had time to grab anything before suddenly I was passing my children to police officers across rising floodwaters. It was terrible,” she said.

The family’s home was red-stickered by Auckland City Council the day after they were forced to evacuate. Almost a month later, they still can’t return home.

“We were able to go in once and get a few of our belongings, but that was it. We had to leave everything behind.”

Last Thursday, a neighbour was passing Robyn’s home when he noticed the front door had been “completely taken off”.

Robyn’s husband left work immediately and found that the front door had been taken off its hinges with a crowbar.

Although the family called the police, the officers also couldn’t enter the house to establish the extent of what had been taken because of the red placard.

“We poked our heads in and could immediately see that there was lots missing.

“We are heartbroken. I can’t even begin to imagine who would do this,” she said.

Robyn and her husband have since tried to secure their front door with planks of wood but are “terrified” their home remains “wide open to further burglaries”.

“The issue is that as soon as anyone sees a red placard, they’ll immediately know that nobody is living in that property.

”Besides sleeping at the end of our driveway, I don’t know what we can to do keep our home safe anymore,” she said.

Since her whole street is red-stickered, Robyn has little hope a burglar alarm will be effective with no one there to hear it go off.

Robyn said she and her husband had approached the Council for help, but to no avail.

“The Council made it clear to us that a red sticker is the property owner’s problem and securing that property is our problem, even though we can’t actually go in to secure it because of the red sticker that they put there.

“I just hope this gets people thinking about how to protect the security of the thousands of homes that are red-stickered. Someone, somewhere needs to take responsibility for providing some sort of protection for people’s homes.”

Although police said they were “aware of a number of reports of burglaries in the Auckland City East area” taking place at red or yellow-stickered homes, they were unable to provide an exact figure of how many there had been.

A police spokesperson said these burglaries were “extremely disappointing”.

“For affected residents, we sympathise with the difficult position they are in given they cannot access their homes for safety reasons.

“If people are subject to red or yellow placards we advise that they ensure their property is secure, if at all possible in the circumstances and it is safe for them to do so,” the spokesperson said.

Police will continue to conduct high visibility patrols through affected areas, they said.

When approached by Stuff, Auckland Emergency Management – a part of Auckland Council – said its “first priority is safety of residents”, but referred all other queries to the police.

As of Thursday, 484 houses still have red or yellow stickers on them in the Auckland region.