Prized medals finally come home

Robert and Robin Denton are delighted to have their medals back. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

They were awarded more than 30 years ago, stolen three years ago, and now Robert and Robin Denton's prized Olympic and Commonwealth Games commemorative medals are returning - in dribs and drabs.

The medals - for badminton - were stolen from the couple's former Meadowbank home in a burglary in October 2006. Also stolen were 1994 World Masters Games medals, passports, cameras, jewellery, a computer and a Herald junior sports award given to Mrs Denton in 1969.

Two weeks later police found three of the medals at a Henderson house; about a month later the computer was found in a car in Mt Wellington and in April a man handed in 11 of the medals to the Otahuhu police station.

Detective Sergeant Simon Irving took months to track down the couple because Mrs Denton's medals showed her maiden name of Glenie, and the pair had moved to Snells Beach since the burglary.

Mr Irving said the man who handed the medals in was known to police and had told police he found them on Mt Albert Rd.

"You don't just come across something, three years after they were stolen, in the bush ... If I could put money on it, I'd say one of his children has had them and he's felt guilty about it."

Two of Mr Denton's medals are still missing - commemorative gongs from the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 2000 Sydney games - which his wife has lost hope of seeing again as they were gold and may have looked expensive to a thief.

She said the thief probably melted them down and tried to sell them.

The Dentons, both teachers, attended the Commonwealth Games in the 70s and 80s - Mrs Denton, who is now 58, representing the country in badminton and her husband, now 62, as an umpire for the sport.

"We're absolutely thrilled to bits to have them returned," Mrs Denton said.

"I think it's just sheer luck."

Mrs Denton said it was lucky the only medal she had won at the games - a bronze in Brisbane in 1982 - was displayed in a cabinet and was not taken.

She wanted to thank Mr Irving for finding her.

"When I went into the station to get [the medals] I asked if he was in because I wanted to tell him how nice it was of him to track me down."