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A family are being reunited today with their 120-year-old family Bible, stolen in a Hawera burglary eight years ago.
Wanganui police rural liaison officer Constable Allan Spooner discovered the Olsson family heirloom during a search at a "well-known" Wanganui address. "We found a number of items of interest to us, including the Olsson family Bible. But it wasn't that simple finding who owned it.
"We discovered it had been among items stolen in a Hawera burglary eight years ago. The offender was caught and served time for it, but quite a few items taken were never recovered.
"The Bible had more than 80 years of family genealogy entered, but unfortunately, during eight years in the underworld, someone had twinked out the names, which made it difficult for us to find out who owned it.
"Using lighting techniques, however, we were able to discover it belonged to the Olsson family and we tracked them down to a Waitara address in Taranaki.
"They were over the moon when we rang - they had given up all hope of ever recovering the Bible after such a long time."
Mr Spooner was meeting the family today to return the heirloom.
The Bible belonged to Craig Olsson's great-great-grandmother, who passed it on to Craig's grandfather.
"When we were living in Hawera my grandfather gave the Bible to me," Mr Olsson said. "My daughter was not quite in this world when the burglary occurred and she's 8 now. Her birth was the only bright spot we had that year.
"My grandfather passed away, a good friend's son was killed in an accident and then we had the burglary all in the same year - it was the year from hell.
"But to get a call from the Wanganui police to say they had recovered our Bible simply blew me away - I'd given up all hope of ever getting it back.
"We're not an overly religious family. It's more of an heirloom, which will be passed down to our children now it's been recovered."
