Shoe-nuking Lani fighting for her job

Lani Aperahama. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The firefighter at the centre of a blackmail love triangle has had crisis talks with her bosses in a desperate attempt to keep her job.

Lani Aperahama, 40, nuked her two-timing lover's shoes in a microwave and threatened to release explicit pictures of him after learning he was also sleeping with Kaycee Wall, 30.

She and Wall were each sentenced in the High Court at Auckland this week to 350 hours community service for intentional damage and blackmail.

Aperahama met bosses after Thursday's sentencing and is hoping that she will be reinstated.

Aperahama's mother, Elaine Gillard, acknowledged her daughter had done some "stupid things", but said she had been harshly treated.

"He has got out of this scot-free and I don't think it's fair. If I saw him right now I would give him a punch around the chops. I would wallop him."

Gillard said Aperahama had seen "horrible things" in her time as a firefighter based at Rotorua. She had attended numerous fatal car crashes and been involved in the rescue of children from house fires.

The Fire Service confirmed they were weighing up what disciplinary action to take.

Gillard added: "Her job is on the line. She is expecting to hear back in a week."

The "love rat", who has name suppression, maintained relationships with both women for nearly 18 months between 2007 and 2009.

Upon learning of the betrayal, Wall poured maple syrup in his bed, while Aperahama cooked a pair of shoes she had bought for him in a microwave.

They threatened to send pictures of his genitals to his workplace, bank and a cafe where his daughter worked, unless he paid them each $4000.

After sentencing, Wall posted a message on Facebook saying: "We had some good times and we had some seriously bad times but at least I'll be getting my property back and you won't."

Gillard said she met the man just once, and immediately didn't like him.

"I wasn't that impressed," she explained.

"He was a bit smarmy. I guess that was just his manner. He must have had something because he had two at the same time."

NUCLEAR SCIENCE

The fate of the microwaved footwear was never disclosed in coverage of the court case- so the Herald on Sunday performed a controlled experiment.

We nuked a pair of $20 op-shop shoes in a 700-watt microwave for five minutes.

After two minutes, smoke started billowing from the machine, accompanied by the rancid smell of burning leather. When the smouldering Chinese-made shoes were removed, the soles had come unstuck, and the leather tongue looked like melting bitumen. The shoes were wrecked - but the microwave survived.