"I was devastated when I discovered the tank had been stolen and was oblivious to the theft as I was trying to work out why water was gushing out of the existing concrete tank," Panther said.
"I had Kaitaia Plumbing on FaceTime trying to work out where the tap had come 'loose' as inside the tank there are lots of taps and filters.
"When the plumber said it was coming from the outside tank, I turned everything off and poked the tap back through the concrete tank.
"That's when the plumber asked, "Where's the tank?!"
Panther said she immediately posted about the issue on the Ahipara Whanau Awareness page on Facebook, resulting in lots of anger from the community.
"The comments in response were all supportive and equally disappointed that selfish people would take away from the community and our children," Panther said.
"One person said, 'It's so sad, someone considers their individual needs are greater than the community good.'
"Another said, 'we've been waiting for years for a new park for all our tamariki out here and this happens.' "
Panther added because tradespeople everywhere were under the pump, a new quote to get a concrete replacement wasn't possible yet.
She said it was also quite a process to get everything approved, so predicted it would take months before the situation was rectified.
"I'm most disappointed by the additional costs involved now, which mean the community will miss out on receiving something else that was previously planned for," she said.
"We only have so much funding for this project, so once something is gone, it's gone."
Criminal activity also appears to vary dependent on the weather, with rain and wind often sheltering thieves from being caught in the act.
Far North Roading recently fell victim to stolen property, with litres of diesel and a number of machinery batteries stolen from a forestry work site during the Cyclone Dovi event.
FNR managing director Manu Burkhardt-Macrae said it was not only the loss of materials that was costly, but the loss of labour that had an impact on the business.
"We usually get hit once or twice a year which, unfortunately, is just part of life in this type of industry," Burkhardt-Macrae said.
"That's because it's hard to have security around our machines, so they're often easy targets, especially when it's windy and rainy and thieves can take cover in the weather.
"The loss from the diesel and batteries was about $1000, but it's the loss of labour when our guys can't start that adds up to the thousands.
"We can lose a full day of work because we have to find batteries or bleed the engine and siphon out the fuel."
According to police data, while theft and related offences in Kaitaia had dropped from 740 in December 2019-December 2020 to 613 in December 2020- December 2021, unlawful entry with intent/burglary and break and enter had increased from 329 to 333.
All other crimes recorded had also increased from 2019 to 2020, including a large jump in acts intended to cause injury and sexual assault and related offences.
According to a police spokesperson, while data for 2021-22 is not yet available, anecdotally they had noticed a slight increase in reporting of vehicle and scrap metal offences in the Far North area over the past couple of months.
"We know the summer months are typically busier in Northland, with more people travelling into and around the district, therefore it's typically a busier period for police with callouts," the spokesperson said.
"Burglary reports also generally increase over summer, as more people travel away from home or spend their time outdoors, but we are not immediately aware of this being more prevalent in Kaitaia than in similar rural communities.
"Incidents such as burglaries or vehicle break-ins are generally opportunistic in nature, and we urge people to report any suspicious activity to police immediately by phoning 111."
Police also encourage the community to take preventive steps to help deter offenders from targeting their property or vehicle, and this includes having secure locks and alarms on your property, not leaving windows open or having window stays, and keeping an eye on your neighbour's property if they are away.
"We also ask people do not leave any valuables in their vehicles and recommend motorists have an alarm installed in their car or use a steering lock to deter any opportunistic offenders," the spokesperson said.
"While we don't have any data available at this stage on drug offending in 2022, we can say that drugs cause immense harm to our communities, and our rural and vulnerable communities in particular and we take this offending seriously."
Anyone with information about drug offending is encouraged to contact police or Crime Stoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
