Thieves steal car while driver visits wife's grave

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Police have no leads on where a car has wound up after it was stolen from a man as he stood at his wife's gravesite.

Alex Tairoa, 77, from Masterton, had left the keys in the ignition of his 1995 Mazda 626 but said the cemetery was the last place he expected thieves to be operating.

He was standing at his wife Margaret's grave - which he visited at least every other day - at Riverside Cemetery about 9am on Friday when he heard a car start up.

"I looked around, and I couldn't believe it.''

He chased after the car, but said he didn't get very far.

Tairoa and his wife had been married for 56 years when she died in February, and they had six children together.

Masterton police Senior Sergeant Carolyn Watson described the act as "despicable'' and the person responsible was a "lousy low-life''.

Police have not heard anything about the car since it was last seen zooming off from the graveyard, and have no leads on where it could have gone.