{"id":361940,"date":"2026-04-03T13:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361940\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:07:11","slug":"auckland-downhill-mountain-bike-club-hit-by-diesel-theft-at-new-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361940\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland downhill mountain bike club hit by diesel theft at new park"},"content":{"rendered":"

A forestry company with land on the valley\u2019s other side had clear-felled a plot and offered it for use, although it was covered in debris.<\/p>\n

The club had a working bee on March 28 with around 30 volunteers to clear slash \u201cto save ourselves a bit of money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the local dads has offered up his weekend to clear a bunch of slash on-site just so we can prepare to set up the new park,\u201d Boucher said.<\/p>\n

\"AA view of the digger and the forestry slash. Photo \/ Josh Foff Boucher<\/p>\n

But thieves came and stole the diesel sometime after Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were paying for the fuel and someone has siphoned it out of the digger,\u201d Boucher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the hardest part is getting the tracks out of the ground, and we\u2019re not off to a great start, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the club plans to lodge a report about the theft with police.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe digger getting the ground ready. Photo \/ Josh Foff Boucher<\/p>\n

It comes after a Waikato solo mum of three was left without a car when thieves drilled a hole in her fuel tank and drained all the petrol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rahema Lingman, 25, of Hamilton, was in tears after what she says shows the \u201cextreme lengths\u201d some people will go to amid high fuel prices.<\/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

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

Police have previously said they understand the global fuel situation is making people nervous and there is concern of an increase in fuel theft.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice is watching closely for any trends around fuel theft and associated offences,\u201d Assistant Commissioner Road Policing and District Support Tusha Penny said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice will remain visible in our communities and will respond to any incidents as they arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Boucher is positive about progress for the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty early in the piece, but best case we\u2019d be open by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cbest case\u201d comes down to securing funding. The volunteers will do all they can to clear tracks themselves before the trails are built by South Star Trails \u2013 one of New Zealand\u2019s top trail builders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably up for about $100,000 to get the track done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news, Boucher said, is they won\u2019t have to move for at least another 20 years until the trees are cut down again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A forestry company with land on the valley\u2019s other side had clear-felled a plot and offered it for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,1975,51,682,1070,21525,3269,3595,18836,54239,6374,33236,71,3594,14571,65989,21524,117,111,43,139,69,8143,19764,1346,6110,14168,165,66960,9202,13797],"class_list":{"0":"post-361940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-at","10":"tag-auckland","11":"tag-being","12":"tag-bike","13":"tag-biking","14":"tag-build","15":"tag-by","16":"tag-club","17":"tag-diesel","18":"tag-digger","19":"tag-downhill","20":"tag-from","21":"tag-hit","22":"tag-kick","23":"tag-litres","24":"tag-mountain","25":"tag-new","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-park","31":"tag-received","32":"tag-stole","33":"tag-teeth","34":"tag-theft","35":"tag-their","36":"tag-thieves","37":"tag-tracks","38":"tag-used"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361940","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=361940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}