Thieves take 5m school gates

Police are hunting brazen thieves who stole an Invercargill school's gates during the weekend.

Newfield Park School's two five-metre galvanised steel gates were taken in a late-night raid on Friday.

A nearby resident heard a bang around 9.30pm and looked outside to see two men in a white van loading what appeared to be scaffolding into the back, caretaker Richard Drummond told the Southland Times.

He found out the gates had been stolen after the principal rang him and asked if he had removed them for any reason.

Mr Drummond believed the gates, which would cost thousands of thousands of dollars to replace, had been stolen to order as they would be of little value as scrap.

- NZPA