{"id":359981,"date":"2026-04-02T08:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359981\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T08:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:11:08","slug":"waikato-single-mum-faces-1300-bill-after-thieves-drill-fuel-tank-steal-petrol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359981\/","title":{"rendered":"Waikato single mum faces $1300 bill after thieves drill fuel tank, steal petrol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moments after driving off, she began to smell the fumes inside her car.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally only five seconds\u201d later, she checked the fuel gauge \u2013 it was empty, despite having $100 worth of petrol earlier.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe hole that someone drilled in Hamilton resident Rahema Lingman’s car fuel tank to steal all her petrol. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe light was on, it was completely drained, and I had nowhere to stop at that point,\u201d she told the Waikato Herald<\/a>. <\/p>\n

She drove to Anglesea A&E, where she discovered petrol leaking from underneath the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Lingman approached a bystander in the parking lot, who fortunately happened to be from a tow truck company. He found a hole in the fuel tank. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a hole,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like they must have drilled into it maybe one or two times.\u201d <\/p>\n

She is now without a car and faces a $1300 repair bill, with only third-party insurance.<\/p>\n

A quote from the mechanic confirmed her fuel tank was damaged, and \u201csomeone had drilled a hole in the tank\u201d.<\/p>\n

She found it crazy that one tiny hole could cause so much damage and cost so much to fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be freaking hard getting that money together,\u201d Lingman said.<\/p>\n

\"RahemaRahema Lingman, a solo mum of three, is left without a car after thieves drilled a hole in her fuel tank and stole her fuel. Photo \/ Michaela.behindthelens <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m left with this huge bill, struggling to get my kids to school and kindy, and then also finding a way to get myself to class every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She believes her car may have been deliberately targeted, as it was parked by trees and less visible from the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy car was the only one targeted because another friend from my class was parked there, but her car was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesterday she went around local businesses seeking information, and someone reported smelling petrol from 1.30pm. <\/p>\n

That was only an hour after Lingman parked her Nissan. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like someone was almost watching me or planning to do this because I only parked my car there at 12.30 and came back at 4.30.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police<\/a> said they had received a report of theft on Pembroke Lane around 6.30pm, and are making inquiries. <\/p>\n

Lingman said she feels lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to continue driving, and somebody threw out their bloody cigarette butt in front of me, [that could have been so dangerous],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really freaked me out. I was honestly in tears. <\/p>\n

\u201cI literally could have not made it home to my kids that day. [I\u2019m] thankful I\u2019m safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Lingman fears fuel theft would worsen. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to extreme lengths, aye [sic]. I think they\u2019re going to start coming onto people\u2019s properties [to steal fuel] if it gets that bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s horrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakat\u0101ne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moments after driving off, she began to smell the fumes inside her car. \u201cLiterally only five seconds\u201d later,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[189026,74,1558,16574,15455,59937,17310,6119,2678,22528,101,2721,111,43,139,69,22126,312,58218,59353,36096,14931,66960,1529,1524,1339],"class_list":["post-359981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-189026","tag-after","tag-been","tag-bill","tag-drained","tag-drill","tag-drilled","tag-faces","tag-fuel","tag-hole","tag-left","tag-mum","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-petrol","tag-says","tag-single","tag-solo","tag-steal","tag-tank","tag-thieves","tag-three","tag-waikato","tag-without"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359981","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=359981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}