Police investigating the callous theft of plaques honouring the memory of three young boys who drowned in east Auckland in the 1950s are using CCTV footage of the offenders to try to track them down.
As the Times recently reported, the local community has reacted with anger after the two plaques were stolen from the large memorial rock near the Howick Volunteer Coastguard building at Howick Beach.
They were installed to commemorate the tragic deaths of brothers Rex Edward Goddard, 13, and Richard Keith Goddard, 11, and their friend Richard Hugh Williams, 16.
The trio had gone out fishing at Howick Beach in their dinghy on July 15, 1956.
When they didn’t return, members of the local community went out to search for them, but they were too late. The boys had drowned when their dinghy capsized.
The inscription on the top plaque reads: “To the memory of Richard Hugh Williams, Rex Edward Goddard, Richard Keith Goddard, accidentally drowned 15th July 1956.”
The wording on the bottom plaque states: “This tragic accident started a major community effort which resulted in the formation of the Howick Sea Rescue Service in February 1957.”
A social media post about the plaques’ theft drew dozens of angry responses, with one person referring to the thief or thieves as “scum” and others speculating the objects may have been stolen to sell for scrap.
Sergeant Brett Meale of Howick Police told the Times CCTV footage has revealed the plaques were removed from the rock at about 6am on Friday, September 6.
The vehicle the two suspects were travelling in was filmed, as were the offenders as they removed the plaques.
“We’re trying to see if we can find any other CCTV footage from neighbouring properties around that time,” Meale says.
“People are out walking at that time of morning and at 6am it’s becoming light, so anyone who was in that area, it would be great if they could contact us if they’ve seen anything.
“Likewise, anyone who may have CCTV footage and they’re in the area, if they could check their cameras around that time.
“We’re particularly interested in any vehicles that may have been filmed by CCTV entering the Howick Beach area from about 5.50am on September 6.”
The two plaques stolen from Howick Beach are not the only significant objects in the local community to be taken in recent weeks.
A $2000 cast iron plaque installed in Howick’s Fencible Walk Park to replace a bronze plaque stolen from the same spot in March has also now been stolen.
The first plaque was installed on a low brick plinth in the park on Picton Street in late 2022 as part of the commemorations for Howick’s 175th anniversary.
Its inscription notes the arrival of the Fencible families who sailed from Britain to Auckland in the “hope of creating a secure and prosperous future for themselves and their descendants”.
When it was stolen, the Rotary Club of Howick and the Howick Freemasons Charitable Trust generously funded its replacement.
The new plaque was attached to the plinth using more and longer screws than last time, as well as an adhesive concrete sealant, making it harder to steal.
Following that incident, a large object known as a ‘plane table map with distances’, and which was attached to a plinth near the Cenotaph on Stockade Hill in Howick, was stolen also.
A plane table is described as a device used in “surveying, site-mapping, exploration mapping, coastal navigation mapping and related disciplines to provide a solid and level surface on which to make field drawings, charts and maps”.
The one on Stockade Hill was installed by the Rotary Club of Howick in late 2011 to mark the club’s 50th Jubilee year.
Meale says police have not yet linked the thefts of the three plaques and the plane table, “but it’s all happened at a very similar time”.
“It’s probably more than a coincidence they’ve all gone missing around the same time.
“You’d like to think any scrap dealers who are receiving these items would have the integrity to not accept it and report it to us.”
People with information on the theft of the plaques or plane table, or their current whereabouts, can report it to police on 105 or anonymously to Crimestoppers by phoning 0800 555 111.
