{"id":184967,"date":"2025-12-15T15:12:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/184967\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T15:12:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:12:17","slug":"christchurch-pounamu-headstone-theft-family-plead-for-taonga-to-be-returned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/184967\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch pounamu headstone theft: Family plead for taonga to be returned"},"content":{"rendered":"

The circular, solid greenstone monument with its gold-lettered epitaph was mounted on a red plinth, which was also removed by thieves.<\/p>\n

\u201cTools would have been used,\u201d Lai-Kong said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would have had to go to quite a lot of trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought, \u2018Why? Why would it be taken?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s varnished so they\u2019d have to do a lot of work to get it to a piece that they could make jewellery out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EmilyEmily Lai Kong believes thieves would have used tools to remove the greenstone headstone. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Lai-Kong estimated the theft occurred in the last two or three weeks.<\/p>\n

She said there was no damage to any of the surrounding headstones.<\/p>\n

The pounamu was a treasured piece that had been in the family for many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually from Dad\u2019s house,\u201d Lai-Kong said adding that he had used the stone as a doorstop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we cleaned his house when he passed, we wanted to do something with it for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter Wakefield’s family estimate his pounamu headstone was stolen in the last two to three weeks. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The family are pleading for the thieves to return the family taonga so that their dad can \u201cbe at rest fully\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease put it back where it was, we will restore it if it\u2019s been damaged in any way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a horrible crime that has happened, and something nobody should have to deal with,\u201d said Senior Sergeant Roy Appley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe value of a headstone or plaque is far more than the monetary worth, which makes this crime even more appalling.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, due to the limited information we have, we don\u2019t have active avenues of inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said the file was closed until any new information came to light.<\/p>\n

Police have asked anyone who may have witnessed the theft, or had information that might help an investigation, to contact them online or by calling 105 and quoting file number 251214\/9132.<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter Michael John Wakefield died in 2022 at 70 years old. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time this year gravestones have been targeted by thieves at the Christchurch cemetery. <\/p>\n

Twenty-three bronze plaques memorialising victims of the 1947 Ballantynes fire were stolen from Ruru Lawn<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

Vandals stripped an entire row of the memorial and stole plaques from wooden benches throughout the cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The circular, solid greenstone monument with its gold-lettered epitaph was mounted on a red plinth, which was also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,5195,1558,4487,43714,8127,2109,9064,2082,71,116822,116823,114425,111,43,139,69,116821,103823,12971,60012,4736,75527,14168,61,9091,1354],"class_list":["post-184967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-be","tag-been","tag-christchurch","tag-discovering","tag-end","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-for","tag-from","tag-goldembossed","tag-graveyard","tag-headstone","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plead","tag-pounamu","tag-returned","tag-saddened","tag-stolen","tag-taonga","tag-theft","tag-to","tag-treasured","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}