Family flabbergasted after thieves take front gates

Thieves have dumbfounded a Masterton family who woke on Sunday morning to find their front gates had been stolen in an overnight heist.

Mother-of-four Nicola Carson said she and her youngest daughter Katie, 9, had closed and secured their powder-coated driveway gates shortly after 9pm on Saturday.

The family awoke on Sunday to discover only bare gudgeons on which the steel gates had once hung and a driveway left wide open to the street, Ms Carson said.

"I've heard of people's lights being stolen and yucca plants. But not gates - why gates? Surely the culprits were drunken idiots that someone saw walking down the street with gates under their arms."

Ms Carson said the gates and matching front fence had been installed about a decade ago and were valued at about $5000. She had immediately reported the theft to police.

Masterton District Council workers on Monday found half of the gates tossed in a stream several hundred metres from the family home, she said, and police are still on the lookout for its missing mate.

The gates were insured but the family would far prefer the complete return of the stolen property, she said.