“I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ So I ignored him. He goes, ‘No,’ he was insistent.
“So I said, ‘Alright, okay’. So I went outside, left my bag there.
“And by the time I came round, his mate had come in and nicked it.”
Coast FM breakfast hosts Jason Reeves, Toni Street and Sam Wallace.
Wallace said the stolen bag contained one of his most treasured possessions, a pair of blue suede loafers.
“It had my favourite blue suede shoes, like Elvis,” he said.
“It had my sort of lovely perfume, Gucci perfume.
“I also had my two car keys because I couldn’t find my original car keys, I thought, let me bring my spare set. And I had them both there.”
Coast Breakfast host Jase Reeves joked that Wallace’s account sounded like an insurance claim, suggesting he might also have lost “all your diving equipment, your welding gear and golf clubs”.
“And a partridge in a pear tree. It’s in there,” Wallace quipped.
Co-host Toni Street asked Wallace whether he believed he had been deliberately targeted.
“Did they know who you were?”
“No, no … it’s sadly endemic in relation to, if you’re not aware of what’s happening around you, that’s when they sort of strike,” he said.
Fortunately, he had kept his passport and main credit cards in his pockets, allowing him to continue with his trip.
The Chasers, from left: Shaun Wallace, Darragh Ennis, Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan, and Mark Labbett.
The British quiz king is making his sixth visit to New Zealand since 2019, having previously described the country as his favourite place in the world.
He is touring for two weeks, taking part in a series of charity pub quiz events to raise money for Cure Kids.
Speaking on Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive last week, Wallace said the events had raised more than $250,000 last year, while tour organiser Brendan Lochead estimated about $500,000 had been raised over the past three years.
Cure Kids representative Will Hall recalled Wallace’s enthusiastic fundraising efforts during a previous visit to Queenstown.
“Shaun got up there without even a thought in the world, stood on a plinth, started, you know, the town crier, yelling at the top of his lungs and made us so much money in an hour,” Hall told Coast Breakfast this morning.
The tour was scheduled to stop in Whangārei tonight, with further events planned in Pukekohe, Hamilton, Windwhistle, Timaru, Hanmer Springs and Cromwell.