From Victorian vibrators to top secret defence notes, you truly never know what you might find at your local opportunity shop.
The thrill of any op shop outing is never knowing exactly what you are going to unearth. It might be a sealed copy of The Amazing Adventures of Mr Bean on VHS, it might be a disembodied hairdressing mannequin head from the 1980s, and it might even be a watercolour painting of yourself as a baby. I have encountered all three of these things before, and yet none are anywhere near as bizarre and intense as discovering notes regarding our national security.
Last week, Newsroom revealed that top secret defence notes were discovered by a humble shopper in a Hutt Valley Salvation Army store. The handwritten notes were taken by a New Zealand defence officer attending a Five Eyes forum in the UK, which prohibited any recording devices as the information was “likely to damage national interest in a serious manner.” What nobody accounted for was that Gladys at the Sallies would soon have her paws on the intel.
While this particular op shop find “brought to light the secret role of New Zealand defence staff who have supported and assisted Five Eyes preparation for a potential war with China” it also raised another equally important question: what the hell else might be lurking out there? I used my Two Eyes to go hunting for more of the wildest op shop finds that have made headlines in Aotearoa.
Bleak mayoral desk documents (Wellington Southern Landfill Tip Shop, Wellington)
It’s clearly been a huge year for humble thrifters stumbling upon highly sensitive information. Just a week before Newsroom published their scoop on the Sallies Five Eyes notes, NZ Herald revealed that over a decade of Wellington Council’s “dirty laundry” was passed onto a member of the public when he bought an old desk for $200 from the tip shop. The raft of documents found by builder Raymond Morgan date from the 1980s-2000s and include sexual harassment allegations, porn use, and personal grievance claims. The privacy breach is now being investigated by council. “I just find it absolutely amazing that they would not check to see what was in locked cupboards and drawers,” said Morgan.
Pressed… flowers… (Image: St John’s Facebook)
Pressed cannabis leaves (St John Op Shop, New Plymouth)
In May 2020, not long after the country’s lockdown restrictions had been lifted to level two, the St John New Plymouth hopped on Facebook with an urgent reminder. Not about masking or hand-washing, but concerning a suspected case of squashed ganja in the community. “Just another wee reminder to check your purses, bags, pockets and books before bringing them in,” the post reads. “Someone forgot to remove their pressed flowers from the NZ Gardening A to Z before donating.”
Rare Russell Clark paintings (Unnamed mystery shop, Hawke’s Bay)
Hastings retiree Morgan Rainsford hit the jackpot when his favourite unnamed Hawke’s Bay op shop delivered two genuine Russell Clark paintings for just $5 in 2024. A notable local artist in the early and mid 20th century, Clark taught a young Colin McCahon before being commissioned to paint several significant public murals in the 1930s, eventually taking up a longstanding position as the principal illustrator for the New Zealand School Journal in the 1940s, and becoming a renowned sculptor in the 1950s. With the paintings worth between $1500-2500 each, Rainsford told The Post he would sell them to pay for a trip to see his family. “It would also be helpful to get some stuff for my knee,” he said. “I’ve got a very bad knee.”
Victorian-era vibrator (Nelson Environment Centre Reuse Shop, Nelson)
There was a huge buzz at the Nelson Environment Centre in 2023 when an extremely curious item was dropped off with a large donation of old medical equipment. “Our first thoughts were it may be a portable blood pump, because of its oscillating end,” Nelson Environment Centre chief executive Anton Drazevic told RNZ. A little bit of research revealed that it was in fact a Victorian-era vibrator, touted at the time as a device that was able to cure female “hysteria”. Drazevic planned on approaching Te Papa with the find. “I would hope a piece like this would stay here, it found its way to New Zealand so I think we should keep it,” he said.
Intriguing war relic (Hospice Green Shed Shop, Kerikeri)
Hospice Shop volunteer Leigh Rockell immediately alerted local historians when this framed World War Two relic came into the shop in 2024. According to the NZ Herald, the keepsake commemorates the involvement of New Zealand troops during a conflict on the island of Vella Lavella during World War II. With various ephemera behind glass including identification plates and paperwork taken from a Japanese vessel, the piece is now in the National Army Museum at Waiouru. “You can’t really put a dollar value on an artefact like this, and that its true worth lies in its heritage value,” Heritage New Zealand’s Bill Edwards said at the time.
Lost heirloom rings inside clock (Red Cross Shop, Ōrewa)
Ōrewa Red Cross general manager Maryanne Sikora made an extraordinary discovery when she opened up a “cheap, plastic clock” reported Stuff last year. The clock had been sitting there for several weeks when a customer asked if the batteries were working. Sikora popped the back off the clock, and discovered a ring box containing a glittering wedding band and engagement ring. “I realised that they were valuable rings, white gold and diamonds. So I took them down to the police station,” she said. They were eventually returned to the family, who had been looking for the rings since their mother’s death the year prior.
(NB: these are not the only precious stones found in a local op shop before – Ōtautahi thrifter Spice Kotiro once told NZ Herald she found diamond and sapphire rings for $5 each.)
$4000 cash between bedsheets (Habitat ReStore, Nelson)
This cracking yarn from Stuff opens with a stormer of a scene: a volunteer in the linen department left “as white a sheet” upon discovering a money bag containing nearly $4000 in cash stashed between some, well, sheets. Nelson ReStore manager Rebekah Wyatt told Stuff that the cash was handed over to police where it stayed for a few weeks, until a woman rang the store asking if they had found anything interesting in her donation. “Her husband had been hiding money and not telling her,” Wyatt said. “We get that quite a lot.” Need an eight-part true crime podcast on the husband money sheets immediately please.
Treasured wedding items (St Margaret’s Presbyterian Op Shop, Belmont)
After getting married in Derbyshire in 2021 and shipping a big package of precious wedding mementos home to Auckland’s North Shore, Danni and Tyler Barnes were left bamboozled when NZ Post claimed it had been delivered to their home address, despite it not arriving. As reported by Stuff, they went doorknocking around the neighbourhood until a local “gentleman” informed them that he had been delivered the goods and since donated them to an op shop – but he couldn’t remember where or when. “We were absolutely dumbfounded,” said Tyler. She eventually found at least three of her wedding belongings at the St Margaret’s Presbyterian Op Shop in Belmont, including a dress, a scarf and a jigsaw puzzle depicting their engagement. “Who on earth is going to want to buy that?” she said.
Watch of a fallen soldier (Opawa Community Op Shop, Christchurch)
It was Opawa Community Op Shop’s eagle-eyed volunteer Murray Taylor who noticed the distinct engraving on the back of a broken old Omega watch: David Tripp, New Zealand Armoured Corps, 2 Divisional Cavalry. Discovering that Tripp was killed in Italy during World War II after stepping on a landmine, Taylor took the watch to ex-serviceman Ian Martyn, who reunites war medals and ephemera with descendants. With the family’s permission, the watch was donated to Christ’s College, where Tripp was a student, to be displayed in their museum. “If it wasn’t for him having a good look at it and noting the engraving on the back, it probably would have gone out with the trash,” Martyn told Seven Sharp.