Vandals in Auckland target Papakura Coastguard emergency vehicle

NZ Herald

16 Feb, 2019 09:10 PM2 mins to read

Vandals have smashed a window and ripped a handle off an emergency response vehicle belonging to Papakura Coastguard. Photo / Supplied

Papakura Coastguard officials responding to a boatie in trouble arrived at work to discover vandals had smashed up an emergency response vehicle.

Vandals smashed a window and tore a door handle off an emergency response vehicle belonging to Papakura Coastguard.

Police are investigating the break-in.

The charity said it received a callout on Saturday at 1am to assist a boat with engine trouble.

Vandals have smashed a window and ripped a handle off an emergency response vehicle belonging to Papakura Coastguard. Photo / Supplied

"Unfortunately, arriving at base, we were pretty shocked and disappointed to see that someone had broken the window of our pool car and ripped the handle off our truck," the organisation said on Facebook.

"These are emergency response vehicles with nothing of value stored in them. Sad that people feel the need to break into them."

Some of you may have seen that our vehicles were vandalised last night. Unfortunately, significant damage has been...
Posted by Papakura Coastguard on Friday, 15 February 2019

Despite the setback, the callout was successful and the boat in trouble was towed back to shore.

"Thankfully, the truck was still usable for the callout and we were able to take a private vehicle as well," it added.

The damage was described by the charity as "significant" and there are fears that money raised at its annual garage sale on March 23 will have to be spent on repairing the vehicles.

Its Facebook post has received 350 reactions, 85 comments and shared 106 times as at 9am Sunday morning, and sentiments are running high.

"That's sad that people feel the need to vandalise other people's property, especially that used for saving people's lives. Let's hope they see this post and realise what losers they are," Marilyn Retter wrote.

"CG [Coastguard] does such an awesome job, and don't deserve this added stress. Must be heart wrenching for volunteers to find themselves in situations like this one."