Auckland’s Papakura High School principal speaks out after thieves strike three times in month

A South Auckland principal has spoken out over the “violation” of thieves targeting the school in three separate attacks within the last month.

Papakura High School principal Simon Craggs told the Herald the first break-in occurred over Easter and thieves stole more than 20 Chromebooks and iPads from their art department.

“They’re what we use for our students’ learning,” Craggs said.

“We’re insured but you never get the full value back of what you’ve lost and I guess it’s the violation as well, that people have been into your teaching space, your work space, and stolen your things. And not only that, but they’ve kicked in doors and there’s a significant cost to repairing the damage that’s been caused as well.”

This week Craggs said the school was again hit twice by the men, who he believes are responsible for all three of the break-ins.

Hooded and masked men in the school corridor just after midnight on April 28.

Craggs told the Herald in the second attack, on Thursday this week, the men broke into the hospitality department but “didn’t get away with much.

“Food thrown around everywhere, made a huge mess.

“Tried to take some coffee machines, I think they had perhaps planned to come back and take more but might have been interrupted by security.”

He said on Friday, wearing the same outfits as the previous night, they smashed in the administration staffers’ and deputy principals’ doors.

“It was just criminal damage, it was malicious.

“It’s just really disappointing. Each time you have an incident like this, it costs you thousands of dollars to clean it up.”

Someone out there, he said, will know something about this and it will be “weighing on their conscience.

“I would just like to ask them to do the right thing to reach out to the police or to the school with any information. We would love to catch these guys and put a stop to this sort of thing happening.”

The school also reached out to the wider community in a Facebook post saying the incidents had caused extensive damage “costing tens of thousands of dollars to repair”.

“We need help from our community to stop this from happening again.”

Alongside the posts are photos and a video showing three people in black hooded clothing making their way through a corridor and into a room carrying items.

One of the people appears to be carrying a grey bucket, while another is holding what looks to be a black duffle and a supermarket bag.

“If you can offer any information at all, please contact the school directly or the NZ Police on 105. We understand if you would prefer to remain anonymous and this will be respected,” the school said in a post.

“We greatly appreciate your support in advance.”

Police confirmed a report has been made and they are “making inquiries”.

Papakura High School was previously the subject of the Herald’s Under the Bridge documentary, which recorded the Decile 1 school’s turnaround from tough times.

Last month another Auckland school was targeted by thieves, who broke in and stole $1500 raised during the school fun run.

Members of the Beach Haven Primary School community rushed to offer donations towards replacing the money, which was raised by selling food and drink during the annual event, and quickly matched the money that was stolen.

Northcote MP Shanan Halbert, who attended the event and manned the refreshment stand that night, said it was “disappointing to see funds that were supposed to go to support local tamariki” had been stolen.

“This was a great event held in our community for our tamariki and the community spirit in which these funds were raised was great to see. People all came together for such a fantastic cause,” Halbert told the Herald.