West Auckland locals 'peeved' after brazen fruit felons pluck feijoas from their backyard

Jody Middleton said her neighbour had not been out to collect any fruit from the feijoa tree for several days, and it seemed the offender had taken the whole haul. Photo / File

An Auckland family is 'peeved' after bucket loads of fruit were stolen from feijoa trees in their backyard.

It follows another incident earlier this week in which two men, one on a mobility scooter, were busted allegedly attempting to take avocados from a homeowner's tree.

A resident in Massey, Jody Middleton, said she was appalled when she received a call from her neighbour late last week, who said her feijoa trees had been stripped of fruit.

Despite the victims working from home, someone had managed to sneak into their property and nick the produce.

"It looked as though they've gone for the trees in the middle of the section, but left the trees on the border of their garden," Middleton said.

"They've gone for the feijoas, but left the other trees. I think they had apples, oranges, lemons."

Middleton said her neighbour had not been out to collect any fruit from the feijoa tree for several days, and it seemed the offender had taken the whole haul.

"She said that they absolutely would have needed buckets.

"Even if you would have gathered them up in your shift or something you wouldn't have been able to get them all."

Middleton said her neighbours - who did not wish to be interviewed - were "peeved" about the incident.

"They do use them a lot - they used to sell them but then they realised they had been affected by a fruit moth."

The residents were also rarked up about the invasion of privacy.

"It's more the annoyance that someone has been into your property," Middleton explained.

She was unsure whether the incident had been reported to police.

The incident is not the first case of produce being plucked off Aucklanders' trees.

Man photographed allegedly stealing avocados from a property in Sandringham. Photo / Bret Glazer

Two men snapped allegedly harvesting an Auckland resident's avocado tree on a mobility scooter this week have been reported to the police.

Bret Glazer, 52, said his wife were in the kitchen at their Sandringham home about 10.30am yesterday when she spotted two men prodding their avocado tree with a stick over the fence.

"There's a park over the fence, and they were on the other side with a long 12ft pole reaching over the fence to pull them out," he said.

Glazer said one of the men was on a red mobility scooter.

"I can't believe it. It was probably so they could carry more of them."

His wife, who asked not to be named, went to confront the men and managed to snap photos of them and take their pole.

He said he wasn't sure how many avocados the two men, who looked to be about 60 and could have been locals, had taken.

Police were coming to take fingerprints from the stick, he said.

"We feel violated."

Police confirmed the incident had been reported to them and they would be making inquiries.

A police spokeswoman confirmed to the Herald this afternoon, both incidents were defined as stealing.

"Essentially, entering a property (which includes going through a gate, etc, not just entering the house) without authority and with intent to commit an offence can be deemed as burglary."