Theft sucks. But did the thief in this case know what they were stealing or did they just see a big box and go "Hmm, I might take that and see what it is?" with the purpose of onselling whatever it could have been.

I knew a courier once who said she would nick the "free with purchase" items before she delivered the main item. I was never able to prove it enough to be a nark but I let her have it verbally from me about what a stink b*tch she was being.

Technically speaking, Moata, you don't have a craw. It's an expandable part of a bird's oesophagus used to temporarily store food prior to digestion. But you do have a metaphorical craw in which things can stick.

I'm with you on thievery. It's disgusting. People work hard for the things they have and it's inexcusable to steal those things. You want stuff like that? Get a job. Then you can buy the stuff. I also consider that stealing books from the library ought to be a capital offence. I'm thinking here about the person who nicked that Terry Jones book from Wellington central. You know who you are.

I'm not sure though that people necessarily steal things because they like them, but because they are there. I assume the stormtrooper outfit came in some type of packaging and maybe the thief just saw an unattended package.

Disgusting. Stealing a mans storm trooper outfit.. I mean really what are you going to do with it? Put it on trade me? as if that kind of thing pops up every day. Mail theft is huge in NZ. I hate having anything important delivered to my house I always send it to work.

People who steal library books irk me too but usually because I am waiting for the damned thing to come back and then after four weeks or so the library deigns to call me and say that they will not be replacing it because it is out of print and they're sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused and then I have to buy it on trade me.

In my line of work you see some really stupid things get stolen and all you think is "why?" what are you going to do with a dozen pairs of expensive underwear(five hundred bucks for a gstring)? or 18kg of cheese rounds? 200kg of meat?

I mean I can understand stealing a laptop or a tv or Ipods or jewellery but the stuff above what are you going to do have a fetish bbq with fondue for the whole family?

I too loved Star Wars, right up until the introduction of Jar Jar Binks. At that point I lost all respect for it.

I had a good friend at school who had scale models of the Millenium Falcon and other such things and even went as far as to create a 3D computer model of it, fully rendered (now THAT'S getting your geek on). What gets me is how you can have a scale model of something that never really existed. How do they know the exact dimensions of it??

@ AT #4

Getting my geek on as a scale modeller, I can answer that. The kits were based on the models built for filming the movies, so in a sense, they did actually exist. As for the scale, that can be determined by the size of a known component. For example if you know how tall Han or Chewie are (or more practically say the seats in the cockpit) you can scale the rest of the model around that. And while admittedly theoretical, agreed dimensions for the star wars vehicles do exist (For example, a Star Destroyer is supposed to be 1600 metres in length).

Working in the victims favour is the CCTV footage showing the thieves. I'm sure the Police appreciate the assistance that this potentially provides them in solving the case. But surely, as a cop, you'd also ask why a home needs CCTV recording the comings and goings to the property?

It begs the question - were the thieves there for the costume (surely an inside job to even know about it in the first place), or were they there for something else when they happened to find the boxed costume?

I'm a huge Star Wars freak, so I hope it does get returned, as that is one darn cool costume to own. But what's with the stupidity in allowing such a precious cargo to be delivered when you're not home?

Definitely thieves leave me cold with rage. I'm with you there Moata.

There is this great scene in the Kite Runner when the father character says to his son that stealing is the worst crime anyone can commit. He lays it out saying that stealing someone's life is murder, stealing someone's wife is adultery and so on.

I've always wondered what makes people feel entitled to steal? Where's the switch that says "yeah I'll have that regardless of what suffering it might cause". Whoo. Minor rant.

Anyway I hope that person gets their Stormtrooper suit back!

I'm not sure I've met anyone that likes Jar Jar.. or in fact any of the three new episodes.

As for geekdom.. my friend had a millenium falcon cake at their wedding... very skillfully coloured to show detail etc.. needless to say there was another cake for actual eating.

@ #3

Personally I can't think of anything more eminently sensible to steal than food. 200kgs of meat will feed the family for a long time, and friends, and extended family members. 18kg of cheese ditto. The credibility received from providing the food to others would no doubt leave them indebted to you. All positive factors.

petra its ok if you have somewhere to keep it or a way of storing before it starts to rot, for the most part its not stolen to provide for the poor masses (not that there are that many of those) its stolen to sell off the back of a truck to others. Its disgusting.. I can almost forgive stealing for need but stealing for capital gain is not ok.