Auckland company seeks help locating stolen cabin being rented out to needy Northlanders

Space King owner Victor Smith is gutted another portable cabin has been stolen in Northland.

The owner of a portable building company that rents cabins to hard-up Northlanders for emergency housing is “distressed” after another one was stolen.

A 6x3m cabin was stolen from a Marsden Point Rd property in Ruakākā on Tuesday.

The company, Auckland-based Space King, is now offering a reward for information that could lead to its return.

Space King has been providing portable cabins to the Northland community as temporary emergency housing for around five years.

Company owner Victor Smith said hearing of the theft was “very distressing”.

“It’s frustrating especially because we’re trying to do good in the community.

“We provide them at a cheap and affordable price ... where people are in need with nowhere to go.

“It helps them out.

“It sometimes it makes me think maybe I shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if it’s going to create so much heartache for us.”

Smith said the building was being rented out and was due to go to another Northland customer in need next week.

The theft has been reported to police, and Smith is also urging the community to help locate the building.

The 6x3m cabin was stolen from a Marsden Point Rd property in Ruakākā on Tuesday.

“We do a lot of work for our community in Northland and when things like this happen, it really upsets us,” he said.

It’s the second time a Space King portable building has been stolen from a Northland property.

Eric Monk had been living in a cabin delivered under the Kaikohe-based Whakamanamai Whānau Trust’s “rent-to-bless” scheme called Whare to the Whenua for around six months.

It was stolen from an ancestral papakainga development in Waitangi in 2021 and recovered by police three weeks after it was towed away by an old white Transit van under the cover of darkness.

Monk’s portable cabin was one of around 20 that had been delivered under the scheme as a practical solution to Northland’s growing homelessness problem.

The portable cabins were furnished with items after The Northern Advocate teamed up with The Hits Northland, Whakamanamai Whānau Trust and Solomon Group.

Smith said the current theft was confirmed by neighbours on Tuesday morning.

He desperately wants it back “so that we can pick up our building and deliver it to the new person who is in need next week”.

“We have a backlist of people who are after our buildings.

“If a building goes missing it holds up our whole chain of delivery.”

Police have been approached for comment.

Smith urges anyone with information to contact him via Facebook.

Jenny Ling is a news reporter and features writer for the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering roading, lifestyle, business, and animal welfare issues.