Joy as Paralympic sailor Chris Sharp's wheelchair returned

Para-sailing champ Chris Sharp (left) with teammates Rick Dodson and Andrew May ahead of the Rio Paralympics. Photo / File

A top Paralympic sailor's wheelchair has been handed in to police after it was taken from a Northland jetty.

The disappearance of the custom-made wheelchair from Waitangi jetty on Sunday sparked widespread outrage and left Chris Sharp, who competed in the Rio Paralympics and coaches disabled sailors, with no way of getting around.

Mr Sharp was "over the moon" to get it back and overwhelmed by the offers of help after word of the theft got out on social media.

The Opito Bay, Kerikeri, man left his chair on a pontoon off the main jetty at Waitangi about 11am while he was coaching disabled sailors. When he returned about 2pm the wheelchair was gone.

Mr Sharp said he had left his wheelchair on docks around the world, including Rio de Janeiro, without problem.

Luckily a friend had a spare he could borrow so he could get back to his car; that evening he drove to Auckland to collect an old wheelchair he had in storage. Meanwhile friends shared his plight on Facebook, sparking a massive response.

Witnesses reported seeing two children, aged about 12 and 14, "hooning around" in the wheelchair in a nearby carpark before it vanished.

Mr Sharp had started the long process of getting another custom-made wheelchair built yesterday morning when he received a call from Kaikohe police saying the missing chair had been handed in.

The children's parents had seen them playing with the wheelchair and demanded to know where it came from.

Thinking it had been stolen and dumped they put it in their van and tried to deliver it to Paihia police station, which was closed, so that evening they took it to Kaikohe police station. They declined to give their details.

"I'm just over the moon. I'm so rapt."

Mr Sharp said he was grateful to the parents, who took responsibility for their children's actions and did what they thought was the best thing to get the chair back to its owner, and stunned by the effort people had made to find it back.

He planned to return to Northland on Thursday to collect it.

Mr Sharp's mother, former Far North Mayor Yvonne Sharp, thanked everyone who had searched for the wheelchair or offered to help in other ways.

"I'm really grateful to the community for showing their compassion and care," she said.

A lifelong sailor, Mr Sharp lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident about five years ago. He joined the Kiwi Gold Sailing team and made his Paralympic debut in Rio last year, competing in the three-person keelboat event with crewmates Rick Dodson, a former Team NZ strategist, and Paralympian Andrew May. He coaches disabled sailors in Northland and Auckland through the nationwide Sailability programme.