The burglars win in Kaikohe

A young Kaikohe couple have conceded defeat to the burglars who have broken into their cafe "countless times" since they opened it three years ago, and show no sign of giving up.

The last straw for Lorraine (22) and Waa Whareaitu (28), owners of Trumps Cafe on Station Road, was a burglary in the early minutes of last Tuesday morning, the intruders smashing a strengthened window to steal goods worth at most $150, but doing more than $1000 worth of damage.

If they were after alcohol, which is believed to have been the case, they would have been disappointed. They actually made off with bottles of coffee syrup, which they smashed nearby.

The couple opened the cafe in late 2010, and in the following year were burgled 13 times. Last year was relatively quiet, with three break-ins, but after last week's raid they've had enough.

Mr Whareaitu said the intruders tried the back and front doors first, then climbed over a gate and used a large rock, and a lot of effort, to smash a laminated window, for the third time. The youths were captured on CCTV, and were known to police.

He estimated that burglars had cost the business $30,000 over the years, and the couple could no longer keep up with the repair bills. The value of the latest haul wasn't high, but the insurance excess was $1000. The couple were grateful to a Kaikohe glass firm that had replaced the window at half price.

Mrs Whareaitu said the stress had become intolerable.

"We can't see the light at the end of the tunnel," she said, her husband adding that he was sad to be closing a business they had put so much effort into. It was also a shame that there would be one less Maori-owned business in the town, and just one Maori-owned cafe remaining.

Trumps is now about to go on the market but is staying open in the meantime. Mrs Whareaitu has her first job interview, and her husband is considering going back to his former job as a tutor. He also has IT skills he can turn to.

They have no plans to leave Kaikohe, and do not believe that crime is just a Kaikohe problem. Mr Whareaitu did not know how youth crime could be stopped, but he was convinced that the answer would not come from the government or council.

"I think it's the community that has to come up with a solution themselves, and follow through with it," he said.

The couple have certainly done their bit for their town, supporting breakfast in schools, the ABC childcare centre after it was destroyed by fire, and raising money for CanTeen. Mr Whareaitu was also one of the key volunteers behind an attempt to save the Castle Duo cinema, and is a youth officer with the Air Training Corps.

Acting Senior Sergeant Glenn Taplin (Kaikohe) said the burglary rate had fallen since Christmas, but the problem at this time of year was young people hanging around the streets at night.

"Their parents don't know where they are and they have idle hands. The upshot is burglary and damage," he said.

He urged parents to take responsibility and an active interest in where their children were. If a child said they were going to stay with a friend at night, the parents should phone and check that was the case.

He also invited business owners who were repeatedly targeted by criminals to contact him at the station for crime prevention advice, if it had not already been offered, and called on Northlanders to play their part in reducing burglaries by notifying police if they were offered goods they knew had been stolen or at a price too good to be true. Receiving stolen goods was also a crime, he said.

Youths were also behind a smash-and-grab at Kaikohe's iwi-owned Caltex service station on the same night as the Trumps break-in. Police were following a "strong line of inquiry."