Northern Ireland woman tracks down burglars and recovers belongings in Christchurch, New Zealand
A Banbridge woman is making headlines in New Zealand after she and two friends turned ‘girl detectives’ and recovered their belongings after almost everything they owned was taken in a burglary.
Charlotte Walker, 25, a structural engineer on a work visa in Christchurch, is sharing a rented bungalow house with two sisters, Anna and Sarah Campbell, a nurse and preschool teacher from Scotland.
Last Tuesday Sarah returned home to find the house burgled. A wide variety of clothes, shoes, underwear, jewellry, cameras and laptops were taken, as well as a pineapple, chia seeds and frozen curry.
Most importantly, all their passports were gone—which, as the former Banbridge Academy student said, are tied to "everything" about their life down under, including their work visas and employment.
Anna phoned the police.
"And basically, they said: 'Oh, very sorry for that but really there's not much we can do. You should just file a report online," Charlotte told the News Letter.
Their neighbours saw three people leaving with a shopping trolley full of belongings 30 minutes earlier - and pointed them in the direction they went. One of them was a woman with pink hair.
The three girls set off in hot pursuit and soon found a shopping trolley and a duffel bag full of their things outside a house, just two streets away.
At this point a women walked out and they started filming with their phones.
Charlotte said: "She was wearing my North Face jacket, my bottoms, my boots, and had my camera and bag strapped around her, with all of our keys in it. She was also wearing all of Anna's rings."
Initially she tried to get away, but then she turned apologetic and handed over everything. Charlotte said she appeared to be "not with it".
Then a woman with pink hair came out and Sarah "brilliantly" asked if she could help find their property.
"She was really friendly and said she had no idea how the stuff had got into their house, and told us to come in and have a look. She said the first woman had come around and given them all gifts.
"And then a man came out wearing more of our rings and watches. And then that's when we went in and just saw all of our stuff scattered across the room.
"It was like a charity shop filled with all these random goods and all of our stuff was just freshly sprinkled on top - our swimming suits, underwear, shoes, our pineapple and our chia seeds.
"And that's when we just started grabbing everything that we could.
"It was really weird but the adrenaline factor just kicked in. It was chaotic, but it was I just sort of worked."
The people in the house were all in their forties or fifties, she said.
At this point police arrived and two occupants sprinted out the back while one was arrested.
"It was really good timing because they were getting more and more agitated.
"It was chaotic, funny, but it was also quite traumatic. But we have just been overwhelmed with the support from friends, church and work colleagues here Christchurch. One friend from church came over and cooked us tea and cleaned our bathroom with disinfectant. And our little neighbourhood got us a gift basket.
They have since given a series of interviews, to national New Zealand news outlets.
Charlotte says that everyone loves Anna's quote: "They may take our frozen curry but they will never take our passion for justice."