Police said today that no arrest had been made. Instead, a man was found in hospital in Auckland this morning
KEY POINTS:
Police have arrested a man matching the description of a conman who robbed a Canadian family holidaying in Auckland.
The man was arrested at the Sylvia Park shopping mall, and police were last night still looking for a woman who was with him.
They declined to confirm they had the conman, but said the person in custody matched the description of the man hotel staff allowed to enter the Black family's room.
The arrest came after the family made a public plea to the thief to return precious family photographs.
Ricky Black urged the man who took their belongings to at least return the photographs of his wife's brother, who died in 1979.
"It's really important he be made aware that there are some photos in my wife's wallet that are irreplaceable," he said.
"She lost her brother 27 years ago when she was 12. She had some photos of him in her wallet from that time in the 1970s that she's taken with her everywhere, and he took that wallet.
"They have such a tremendous value - you can't put a number on them, they are unique photos with no replacement value and we are appealing to this person to return them somewhere police can find them."
The family were staying at the Quay West hotel in central Auckland when a man persuaded a receptionist to give him a key to their room before ordering a meal and drinks in their name.
The thief then nipped into the hotel's bar for a drink of Drambuie and carried three bags away. He took the Montreal family's money, computer, iPods, blackberry and passports.
Mr Black said the total cost of all their lost belongings and costs still to be incurred was well above $15,000.
He had begun discussing compensation with the hotel managers.
"They acknowledged it should not have happened and they recognise they have their own work to do internally," he said.
Quay West management did not return calls last night.
The Black family are hoping to go back to Montreal via Sydney tomorrow but that depends on their emergency passports being ready.
"We are not allowed to go to Australia, as was our original plan, and my Asian business trip has been wiped out as well," said Mr Black.
He said although his children were traumatised by the incident, the family were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
"This kind of thing can happen anywhere. There are bad people everywhere and if systems were stronger and people were a bit sharper at that hotel, this could have been prevented.
"But we have had a fantastic time over the last two weeks. We have really enjoyed the country and we definitely intend coming back."
Detective Sergeant Kevin Burke said it was possible the conman had struck before.
"He does appear to be extremely confident in the manner that he's carried this out, so one would assume he may have been used to tricking people before."
Hospitality Association chief executive Bruce Robertson said all businesses in the industry would be reconsidering their procedures in light of the incident but things needed to be kept in perspective.
"Staff deal every day with issues of people losing their pass keys and 99.9 per cent of the time they get it absolutely right.
