When Ian Kerr's Puketona home was broken into his children were so traumatised they did not want to return home for three days.
So when he accompanied police on a search warrant at the home of an alleged burglar, he was unimpressed to be told the person whose home was being searched had apparently complained "how dare they let these people go through my house".
Mr Kerr's home 22km north-west of Kawakawa was burgled in July and on Christmas Eve last year.
"To have the temerity to say that. I didn't tell the kids our house had been broken into a second time until after they ate their Christmas lunch, so I wouldn't ruin it.
"It's so violating. You feel very insecure at night. Every time you come home there's that anticipation of seeing that chaos again."
Mr Kerr has installed an alarm system and bought a dog since the break-ins.
He said he was sleeping much better now police had made significant inroads into a burglary and receiving ring in the Mid North.
"We're enormously impressed with the police."
Kaikohe police Detective Sergeant Russell Price said the mid-North Tactical Response Group based in Kaikohe had executed a number of search warrants over the past week, arresting four people and recovering a "huge" amount of property.
Police took burglary victims with them to help identify allegedly stolen property.
Much of the property had come from rural burglaries that had occurred over the summer, and included household items ranging from washing machines to lawnmowers, linen, tools and electronic items.
Mr Kerr said the thieves had taken food, jewellery, skincare products, clothes, music, household equipment and guns, "just an astonishing range of things".
Mr Price said it was a concern that firearms had been targeted in many of these burglaries, but none had been recovered. He urged anyone with any information about stolen property, particularly firearms, to contact police.
Two Kaikohe men, aged 23 and 25, face a variety of burglary, receiving and drug charges. They have been remanded in custody to reappear in the Kaikohe District Court tomorrow.
A 22-year-old Kaikohe mother faces five receiving charges and a 22-year-old man from Oromahoe, 19km north-west of Kawakawa, man faces a burglary charge.
Victims find burglary traumatic
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