{"id":493924,"date":"2026-06-24T23:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493924\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T23:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:38:09","slug":"the-milk-bandit-of-alexandra-is-back-and-now-the-mayor-has-weighed-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/493924\/","title":{"rendered":"The milk bandit of Alexandra is back \u2013 and now the mayor has weighed in"},"content":{"rendered":"

As if 2026 couldn\u2019t get any stranger, the milk bandit of Alexandra has returned with a new weapon in his arsenal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was more than two years ago that Poppy Prendergast had her first chilling encounter with the mystery milk bandit of Alexandra<\/a>. Working at Royalburn Station, the Central Otago farm co-owned by Nadia Lim, Prendergast would often stop for diesel at the self-service fuel stop on MacLean Road. Refuelling before dawn, she remembers the spooky scene well. \u201cIt was really dark and foggy, and the milk was just sitting there on the diesel pump,\u201d she says. Two litres of Meadow Fresh Calci Strong, choc-o-block flavour, half finished.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next came a spate of hastily abandoned banana milks, one of which was left on the pump for so many days in sub-zero temperatures that the bottle began to bloat dramatically. The milk bandit\u2019s palate appeared to be rapidly expanding too \u2013 they would soon be leaving a dairy-based degustation including Puhoi Valley mocha, Mammoth protein fix iced chocolate, and Barista Bros double espresso. Although there is no bin at RD Petroleum, Prendergast notes that a caravan rest-stop and the Alexandra dump are just minutes away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just such a ridiculous amount to litter,\u201d she says. \u201cBut then it just kept escalating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Banana-rama indeed. Image: Poppy Prendergast<\/p>\n

As the batches of half-drunk milks continued to grow in number and frequency, reaching fever pitch with up to six bottles at once being left every few days, RD Petroleum chief executive Craig Fitzgerald told RNZ<\/a> that the culprit was likely a male delivery driver for an undisclosed company. What was less clear, however, was his motive. \u201cWhether he drinks half a bottle of each one and then leaves them there because he doesn\u2019t want to take them home for rubbish or whatever, I don\u2019t know,\u201d said Fitzgerald. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit bizarre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prendergast too remained perplexed by the mystery milk dumps, even after she stopped working at Royalburn and wasn\u2019t able to monitor the fuel stop as regularly. Adopting the unofficial role as lead detective on the case, she fielded tips from the community that milks were also being spotted in Oamaru, Gore, and even just across town at a similar fuel stop on McKeown\u2019s Road. \u201cI 100% knew that one on McKeown\u2019s Road was a copycat,\u201d she sagely recalls. \u201cThere\u2019s no way it was our guy, because he didn\u2019t leave the milk on the diesel pump.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The scene of the crime. Image: RD Petroleum<\/p>\n

The trail ran cold in 2025, with Prendergast receiving just one milk bandit sighting from her own mother \u2013 \u201cmore Puhoi\u201d \u2013 and logging the intermittent mention in the Alexandra community page. Forced to go back to the drawing board, Prendergast had time to develop a new theory about the pattern of behaviour. \u201cI realised it mostly happened in the winter,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I\u2019m thinking he\u2019s got his heating up high in the truck, it\u2019s making his milk grotty, and then he is like \u2018what am I gonna do with this ungodly amount of milk from the last six hours?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure enough, as the days grew shorter and the frosty winter arrived down south in 2026, so too did the mystery milks at the MacLean Road fuel stop. \u201cIt\u2019s back,\u201d said one of Prendergast\u2019s Snapchat informants, sending through a trio of Puhoi Valley black forest 300ml bottles at varying levels of fullness, tucked alongside an unopened strawberry Lewis Road Creamery. Elsewhere on Instagram, a local captured a brood of Puhoi Valley chocolate milks, some dramatically toppled over, with the simple caption \u201cmilk\u201d followed by a raised eyebrow emoji.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually really angry,\u201d says Prendergast of the milk bandit\u2019s return. \u201cI got goosebumps because I was just so mad \u2013 how can he be doing this again?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"New evidence has emerged. Images: Supplied<\/p>\n

Once her initial rage had subsided, she realised that there was a thrilling new detail in the new batch of evidence \u2013 behind the Puhoi milks was a 700ml bottle of The Collective kefir pourable probiotic yoghurt. \u201cI was immediately like, \u2018Oh my gosh, it\u2019s the kefir one, which is a very expensive yoghurt.\u2019\u201d Indeed, The Collective kefir retails at $7.75 a bottle, but what does it tell us? \u201cI think the assailant probably has gut issues because of all this dairy, and yet he\u2019s still discarding the probiotic yoghurt which is probably the best thing for him right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bad microbiome or not, Prendergast remains unsympathetic towards the milk bandit. \u201cHow many times can you litter like this before it becomes something bigger? They have a caretaker who checks in once a day, and he\u2019s just constantly cleaning up after this guy and taking all this milk away.\u201d And in a cost of living crisis, she adds that wasting that much milk feels particularly pointed. \u201cWe have a big community pantry here with chilly bins all through it. Why don\u2019t you just not open and slurp all over each one and instead give some away?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Poppy Prendergast and Central Otago mayor Tamah Alley<\/p>\n

It is a sentiment echoed by Central Otago mayor Tamah Alley. \u201cAt a time when many households are feeling the pinch of the cost of living, this does feel like a particularly expensive way to make a statement, especially when it involves only drinking half the product and leaving the rest behind,\u201d she says. \u201cThe littering is disappointing and doesn\u2019t reflect the pride our community takes in looking after our place. We\u2019d much rather see that milk enjoyed properly (preferably to the last drop to hit their protein targets) and then recycled appropriately.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the milk bandit remains at large and newly armed with pourable probiotics, Prendergast says she is not giving up on her inquiries and would like to confront him in person. \u201cI\u2019ve been plotting to do a stakeout and take shifts with people,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to confront him with a rubbish bag and say, \u2018can you please pick that up?\u2019 and, like, watch him put it in the bin. There\u2019s gotta be some accountability here.\u201d And based on her previous modelling, she says the winter temperatures plummeting further in July will only bring more abandoned milks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s starting off soft, like the first time around,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I worry that it could get worse before it gets better again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As if 2026 couldn\u2019t get any stranger, the milk bandit of Alexandra has returned with a new weapon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33215,197749,7224,156,19332,111,139,69,2935],"class_list":["post-493924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alexandra","tag-central-otago","tag-dairy","tag-entertainment","tag-milk","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493924","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=493924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}