![\"Ōpua,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/opua-northland-77KTV7EDMZGIRLDH24NIJE7A3Q.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA Northland family’s houseboat retreat in the Bay of Islands has been stripped bare by thieves who stole up to $10,000 worth of equipment \u2014 including a sleep apnoea machine, an outboard motor and all their fishing gear.<\/p>\n
The houseboat, moored over 100m offshore at \u014cpua, had been used by the Ross family as a gathering place for the wh\u0101nau since they built it 14 years ago.<\/p>\n
“It’s kind of a family spot where we can all get together, we fish off the back and catch our food, so it’s quite good,” said Karen Ross.<\/p>\n
The houseboat had been set up for the needs of the family, including solar panels, batteries and a generator to power a TV for two grandchildren and a sleep apnoea machine for her husband Ken \u2014 without which he cannot sleep on the boat. <\/p>\n
The family discovered something was wrong last week after a friend urged them to check on the vessel.<\/p>\n
A neighbour ferried a police officer out to the houseboat, where he photographed the scene and collected clothing left behind by the intruders.<\/p>\n
But it wasn’t until the Ross family visited themselves that they realised the full extent of the theft.<\/p>\n
The family estimates that between $8000 and $10,000 worth of property was stolen.<\/p>\n
Among the missing items were a generator, a new outboard motor, solar equipment, batteries and fishing gear.<\/p>\n
Power tools, gas cylinders, a chilly bin full of alcohol and Ken Ross’ sleep apnoea machine were also taken.<\/p>\n
The stereo and television had been ripped from the wall but left hanging behind.<\/p>\n
‘You couldn’t fit it on a kayak’<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u014cpua, Northland. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
The family remains baffled as to how thieves managed to remove a heavy generator, an outboard motor and a chilly bin full of alcohol from a houseboat sitting more than 100m offshore.<\/p>\n
“Everybody around us, a lot of us that live on our boats there, nobody heard anything.”<\/p>\n
Two kayaks were initially missing before later being found abandoned in nearby mangroves, but Ross does not believe they were used to transport the stolen goods.<\/p>\n
“Our thinking is the big generator weighs a lot, and you couldn’t fit it on a kayak, and then the outboard motor wasn’t light,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ross believes whoever carried out the theft likely arrived by boat and may have used poor weather as cover.<\/p>\n
“They would have had to have a reasonable boat to take what they’ve taken, especially all of it in one go.”<\/p>\n
The thieves had disabled security lights by cutting, breaking, or burying them under blankets. <\/p>\n
“With the curtains pulled and without our lights coming on, you could easily have a torch in there and not be seen from the outside.”<\/p>\n
Even the sawdust from the composting toilet was tipped on the floor to use the bucket to put stolen items in, she added. A box of aerosol cooking gas canisters was taken, along with a box of toilet paper.<\/p>\n
“I think they ran out of room.”<\/p>\n
Police confirmed it had received a report of several items being stolen from a boat in \u014cpua on May 28. Police believe the theft occurred between May 20 and 23.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, at this stage, it doesn\u2019t look like there are any avenues of enquiry to enable us to identify the person\/s responsible. But if anyone has information which could assist, they\u2019re asked to report it via 105.”<\/p>\n
The family now had to rebuild their supplies from scratch, first buying three new fishing rods and some bait so they could at least catch their dinner.<\/p>\n
“We’re gonna have to save up,” Ross said.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including weather watches in force, and the GOAT makes a comeback. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northland family’s houseboat retreat in the Bay of Islands has been stripped bare by thieves who stole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,1067,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-456238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-northland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456238","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=456238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}