Victim awaits answers over $2500 stolen credit card bill

Michael van Drogenbroek was in an upmarket hair salon the April afternoon his credit card was stolen.

The hairdresser, guiding him from consultation chair to wash basin, saw the 40-year-old chartered accountant reach for the bag at his feet and reassured Mr van Drogenbroek that it would be safe until he returned.

Fine, he thought, as soothing hot towels were placed over his face.

When Mr van Drogenbroek went to pay, one of his credit cards was missing. Mildly concerned, he used another.

But he was anxious by the next morning. As he searched his house for the card, the Bank of New Zealand rang: had he been on a $2500 splurge?

Someone had passed the previous 18 hours spending up in Newmarket at three shoe shops, a bike shop, two cafes and another hairdressing salon, and in Auckland Central on a Sky Tower bungy jump and in another shoe shop.

The card was finally declined in a Newmarket jewellery store.

Police told Mr van Drogenbroek that they would not act until they received a statement from the bank.

It was a Sunday; he did not want the trail to go cold so he got the list of shops and visited them himself. It took little time to establish what had happened.

The bank put a private eye, a former policeman, on the case. He compiled a detailed dossier and took it to Auckland Central police in late May.

The result, six months later? Nothing, says Mr van Drogenbroek.

He feels "angry, pissed off, agitated". Police keep telling him that other crimes have taken higher priority.

BNZ investigator Veronica Hippolite admits she is also frustrated: the bank reimbursed Mr van Drogenbroek, but without a conviction it cannot seek redress.

"We try and minimise the police work by identifying the offender," she says.

And the police? Spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty says an officer was assigned to the case, but progress stalled mid-year as police resources were redirected to three concurrent homicides.

"Over those months ... some of the inquiries that would normally have been carried out on files like Mr van Drogenbroek's may have been stalled.

"The file ... is being assessed for evidential value and it has been put in the queue, as is normal practice, and assessed in terms of its level of priority.

"I'd like to reassure Mr van Drogenbroek and any other complainants that those complaints are not forgotten. They are prioritised.

"At times they may take longer to investigate than the CSI-Miami-style [case] takes, but we do carry out robust investigations."

Mr van Drogenbroek accepts that murders take top priority, but he feels a six-month wait for resolution is too long for "a watertight case".

Caseload crisis

The Weekend Herald revealed on Saturday that overworked Auckland City police have formally decided to "suspend or abandon" investigations of many everyday crimes. Offences deemed less important included commercial burglary, repeat break-ins, fraud, theft from cars and shops and criminal damage.

If you have been the victim of a crime that was not investigated, tell us what happened at newsdesk@nzherald.co.nz