{"id":586931,"date":"2026-09-01T13:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586931\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T13:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:38:11","slug":"christchurch-memorial-theft-brass-dolphin-stolen-from-teenagers-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586931\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch memorial theft: Brass dolphin stolen from teenager\u2019s grave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Melissa\u2019s mother, Lynda Tucker, said the family discovered it on Tuesday when they visited the cemetery after rain and hail the previous day, on what would have been Melissa\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI thought it was bulletproof\u2026 unfortunately it was brass,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The brass dolphin was removed from Avonhead Cemetery.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The brass dolphin was removed from Avonhead Cemetery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Tucker said she had contacted scrap metal dealers across the city, but did not believe the piece would be recovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cUnfortunately, [we] don\u2019t know exactly when it went,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe will have to look at some other substance to replace it with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">The theft comes amid a string of incidents involving brass and bronze memorials across Christchurch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Last month, plaques were taken from Latimer Square and the Bridge of Remembrance overnight on Tuesday, August 11, and Wednesday, August 12.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cPolice are working to locate the plaques and establish what has happened to them,\u201d Metro Commander Superintendent Lane Todd said at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Last year, thieves also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/a-christchurch-memorial-for-ballantynes-fire-has-been-ransacked-by-thieves\/4R3D42IU5RFKFOKVESJFHB6BUM\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/a-christchurch-memorial-for-ballantynes-fire-has-been-ransacked-by-thieves\/4R3D42IU5RFKFOKVESJFHB6BUM\/\">targeted a memorial commemorating victims of New Zealand\u2019s deadliest fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Twenty-three of the 41 bronze plaques honouring those who died in the Ballantynes fire were missing when NZME visited Bromley\u2019s Ruru Lawn Cemetery at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">One row of the memorial had been completely stripped by vandals. <\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">At least seven plaques from wooden benches throughout the cemetery had also been targeted, with some benches damaged during the removal process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">The department store blaze remains the deadliest fire in New Zealand history, claiming 41 lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">At least 680 people were inside Ballantynes when the fire broke out, including 430 staff and 250 customers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Jazlyn Whales is a multimedia journalist based in the Christchurch newsroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa\u2019s mother, Lynda Tucker, said the family discovered it on Tuesday when they visited the cemetery after rain&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,1558,682,138509,138,4487,8809,6179,67917,71,28163,19872,111,139,69,5196,4062,3790,4736,4054,47066,14168,23857,6123],"class_list":["post-586931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-been","tag-being","tag-brass","tag-business","tag-christchurch","tag-cycling","tag-died","tag-dolphin","tag-from","tag-grave","tag-memorial","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-removed","tag-school","tag-statue","tag-stolen","tag-teenager","tag-teenagers","tag-theft","tag-truck","tag-while"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586931","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=586931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}