Thieves rob community
By KAREN MANGNALL - Papakura Courier
NO GLOSS: Owners Maureen and Allen Poole survey the display window at their Elliot St store that thieves removed to steal $2500 of paint – and profits that go into supporting deserving Papakura community causes.
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Thieves who stole 13 buckets of paint from a Papakura store have robbed deserving community projects, the owners say.
Allen and Maureen Poole lost $2500 of premium white exterior paint in the break-in at their ColourPlus store around 5am last Friday.
The burglars removed the aluminium window joinery and then a large pane of glass from the front of the Elliot St store to get at the paint.
The alarms would have been triggered as soon as the glass was moved, Allen says.
"I reckon there must have been a number of them to shift the glass out, for one, and then to grab as much paint as they could in a short time."
The damage goes beyond the cost of the paint, he says.
"There’s the cost of replacing the window and all that leaves less that we can put back into the community and that’s the disappointing part."
Over the past 15 years the couple have regularly ploughed some of their profits back into the Papakura community – as the lineup of plaques on the store’s wall attests.
They sponsor and donate prizes for sports groups and individuals and provide free paint for community projects like the Awhi Wraparound community house at Smiths Ave.
Some of the stolen paint was earmarked to spruce up a planned new community policing station in Takanini.
The store is also "the drop off point for just about everything" in the way of charity collections by local service clubs.
Now the Pooles are hoping Papakura will "stand together" to get back the paint.
The 10-litre buckets are distinctive because the paint is "exclusive to ColourPlus".
"You can’t buy it anywhere else and it’s just been upgraded to a 15-year warranty," Allen says.
He suspects the paint was stolen for a specific job because the thieves took only white.
The couple have "put out feelers" around the industry in case anyone brings in 13 buckets of white paint for tinting.
They’re also hoping this story will "jog somebody’s memory" who was passing by the store that morning and heard the alarm and saw a van parked outside.
"Somebody knows something," Allen says.
"And we hope they’ll realise it will affect what we can do in the community."
Anyone with information can phone the Papakura police on 295-0200.
