Early Christmas gifts for charity hit by gate-stealing thieves

Karl Merriman, Ray Sterling and Cody Stevens from EasyGate with St Vincent de Paul Society area manager Lorna Edlin with the new gates. Photo / Andrew Warner

A Tauriko company put off its staff Christmas party yesterdayto replace a Tauranga charity's stolen gates.

When Ray and Nathalie Sperling, owners of EasyGate in Tauriko, saw in Tuesday's Bay of Plenty Times thieves had come in the dead of night and nicked off with the Tauranga St Vincent de Paul Society's gates, they did not hesitate to make a generous offer.

"My wife called me and said 'This is just ridiculous, why would someone steal someone's gates? Especially from people who are helping the community. We have to do something'," Sperling said.

The Vinnies, who had been busy getting quotes for new gates, gratefully accepted the Sterlings' offer of a free pair.

The Sterlings put EasyGate's production schedule - already five weeks behind - on hold and whipped up a pair of 1.9m double aluminium gates. The double gates - worth about $2000 - have a spear-style top to discourage climbers, as requested by the charity.

Colourfast in Koromiko St agreed to do the powder coating for free.

The EasyGate team had planned to have their Christmas do in Rotorua yesterday but postponed it to instead spend the afternoon installing the new gates at the Cameron Rd op shop and centre.

The charity's area manager, Lorna Edlin, said they were blown away by the gift.

It was not the only nice thing to come from the meanspirited theft.

The Legacy Trust donated $1000 to the charity. Trustee Greg Brownless, Tauranga's mayor, said he knew the work it did in the community and the trust was "happy to help them out".

And security company Nu Tech agreed to throw a free extra security camera into an upgrade the charity was already doing.

"It's the most amazing thing ever," Edlin said.

Baffling gate theft

- Gates vanish overnight on Monday
- Theft believed to have happened between 11pm and 12am
- One gate 1m wide, the other 3m
- Police investigating, no arrests yet