Burglars leave foul mess for ailing man

Burglars have stolen a valuable computer and software from a Featherston man struck down with motor neuron disease, breaking in to his home while he was enjoying a rare trip to the South Wairarapa coast on Sunday.

Richard Clark, 69, returned home from a photography expedition to Ngawi with his partner, Emily Friedlander, to discover burglars had entered his Wakefield St home, making off with his prized laptop worth $7500.

They stole chocolate and, bizarrely, two toilet rolls.

"They had also used the toilet, which they didn't flush and had messed all over the toilet seat," Mr Clark said.

After a brilliant career as a film editor, documentary maker and cameraman, which took him all over the world, Mr Clark is, by his own admission, looking at a short remaining lifespan.

Two years ago he had just completed the Tongariro Crossing and was out fishing, when he developed a limp.

It was the start of an illness which has progressed to the stage where Mr Clark is mostly reliant on a machine to help him through the day by supplying air to his lungs.

The weekend burglary has caused Mr Clark to reflect on his time spent in the US.

"I lived for 16 years in Los Angeles, between the Crips and the Bloods [gangs], and had a big studio behind the house. In that whole time I never once had a problem and I even used to park my car on the street all night."

Mr Clark believes Wairarapa has a problem with "unsupervised kids". Sunday's burglary was the second time he had been hit since returning to live in New Zealand.

"I was robbed when I owned a vineyard at Opaki, near Masterton. That was in 2006 and the thieves took all my film gear, my bike and my music," he said.

He said he would love to get his laptop back but his biggest worry was that those who stole it would simply trash it.

Mr Clark was an international film editor for more than 40 years, twice named Australian Editor of the Year, and became one of the six top commercial editors in America.

Before returning to New Zealand he spent two years exploring, photographing and filming the American West.

One of his passions is the work of celebrated western author Zane Grey, which led him on a search for Zane Grey's America.

Mr Clark reported the burglary of his Featherston house to police and yesterday a detective called around to the house and fingerprinted it.

Mr Clark said he understood some prints had been detected.