Cyclone Gabrielle’s silver lining: Wallet stolen 26 years ago found under the roots of storm-damaged tree

Michael Hardy, pictured with his wallet that was stolen in the mid-1990s which was found in the roots of a tree being cleared after storm damage in Hastings' Windsor Park.

A wallet missing for 26 years after it was stolen from a vehicle in Hastings in 1997 has been recovered from under the roots of a tree upturned by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Retired Central Hawke’s Bay farmer Michael Hardy had long forgotten the theft, and the wallet, and says he had to think hard when his daughter rang after learning a contracting crew clearing fallen trees in Hastings’ Windsor Park unearthed a wallet apparently belong to an “M.J. Hardy”.

The big questions to be answered were whether or not that “M.J. Hardy” was Michael Hardy, of CHB, and had he lost a wallet?

“I was sure that it had to be another Hardy, as I had no memory of having lost a wallet,” said Hardy.

Later in the day, son Chris, who with wife Hanne was Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year in 2006, remembered a day at the Stortford Lodge Saleyards in Hastings when his father discovered his ute window was smashed and a wallet had been stolen from the glovebox, which had also been forced open.

A Hardy family-photo from a Farmer of the Year win in 2006, with Mike Hardy third from left and son and award-winner Chris second from right. Photo / NZME

It was only then Hardy remembered what had happened, and he recalled a fruitless search in the grass around the nearby cemetery in the hopes a thief would have discarded the wallet because it did not contain any cash.

“We found nothing, so we called at the police station and reported the theft, and to this day I have heard nothing,” he said.

He now has the wallet back, including its contents – a driver’s licence, “countless” signed receipts, and his life membership with the Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust – all in “pristine” condition, and cards with expiry dates of 1996 offered a guide as to when it happened.

“It is a time capsule,” he said.

It is, he says, the one and only good thing he’s heard about what Cyclone Gabrielle has done to Hawke’s Bay, and he appreciates that the police staff of 2023 have more important things to do than look for a wallet right now.

Colin Pirie, chief executive of Habitat BPM, which contracts to councils on riparian and other work around council reserves and plantings, said his crew found the wallet among the roots of a tree, and when they brought it in at the end of the day, it would normally have been handed over directly to police.

But it had enough identifying details to be referred to friends in the Takapau area.

“They knew of him, and thankfully he’s still around,” Pirie said.

Back out in the country, the phone and other communications were still playing up in the aftermath of the storm, but Hardy still had one message for police.

“I could tell them to stop looking,” he said.