Tim O'Sullivan: Ray White Rotorua co-owner on the burglary of a charity garage sale

Organisers of a Rotorua charity garage sale are considering canning it altogether after a burglary. 

A car, trailer, and small donated items were allegedly stolen from the sale's storage area at Ngongotaha Railway Park over the weekend. 

Small electronic goods were discovered missing from the containers. 

Ray White Rotorua co-owner Tim O'Sullivan told Mike Hosking he suspects this wasn't opportunistic. 

He says they did all the right things in terms of how they broke in, and the yard was locked up, but it didn't deter them. 

Police say a 27-year-old man has been charged with the burglary and is due in court tomorrow. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a little bit of trouble and rode Aua, the

(00:01):
organizers of a charitable garage sale, potentially calling it quits
because since twenty nineteen ray White they've sourced and sold
unwanted items from their property sales. Right, so they've raised
more than one hundred thousand dollars for charity. But you've
had a robbery at the weekend, and so it's all
turned a bit pear shape. The ray White Roderua co
owner Timo Sullivan's, well, there's tim very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Mike Kelly, very.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, thank you. So what they get a car, end,
the trailer and all the stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, they broke into the main shed and it was
more than likely a child to get in through the
window because it was quite small. So what a great
start that person's got in life. Got into the shed
and saw some items there, got the big trailer. We've

(00:46):
got a huge furniture trailer which they then would have
loaded up with goods, and also took a car that
we'd recently purchased because we were going to start going
into car boot sales. So I said, well we'll get
a few cars ourselves and and sort of set the
set the trend, I guess to start that sort of

(01:07):
happening at the rail park.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Not not that it matters, but would that be an
opportunistic robbery or would they have known you had cars
and stuff there?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
We're pretty sure it was. You know, it was known
to the to the burglars. It wouldn't surprise me if
they'd have attended one of the garage sales and sort
of case the place out, because it just happened. You know,
they did it all the right things in terms of
how they broke in and the yard was locked up,
but they yeah, they didn't deter them.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well what did the police say.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, no, it's tire. Where it happened, just out of
road is a very tight community and pretty much once
the word got out, the police were informed of where
the trailer was. We've got the trailer, Yeah, the trailer.
The police did a wonderful job and got the trailer back.
But you know, we only got half the trailer back.

(02:00):
Most of it's been dismembered, so they started taking it apart.
But anyway, we've got to train it back. That's the
main thing. So what are you.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Thinking about going forward? What are you gonna do?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, we're still thinking about it. I mean, it's always
gutting when you get burgled, and it's so unnerving. It's
not a decision they'll make on my own, so I'll
talk to the team about it. We've since had a
lot of calls and support from the public, and of
course they don't want us to stop, so we'll see
what happens. We also do charity Garrett sales charity options

(02:33):
from their main office and and they go really well
good and everything's secure there. So yeah, we'll just have
to think about it. Okay, We've got another Garrett sale
coming up in a couple of weeks, so we'll see
how that goes.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Okay, we'll go well. Appreciate it very much to my Sullivan,
Ray White, Rover Rue.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
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