Flag theft spoils shop weekend

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 245, 8 June 1988, Page 3

Flag theft spoils shop weekend

Thieves spoiled Queen's Birthday Weekend for the Powderhorn Ski Shop in Ohakune. They took $1200 worth of brand n e w flags from outside the shop on Sunday evening. One of the owners, Mr Ian Helton, told the Bulletin yesterday he was more angry with the meaning of the theft than the loss of the flags. "It's just n-jt funny," he said. "It's sick." He felt it was bad enough that ski shop owners had to deface hire gear with ugly stamps and engravings to deter people from stealing it. The flags were worth $1200, he said, but it was the fact that someone had sneaked on to their property during a tea break to remove them that mattered most.

The flags are the national flags of various countries and were strung together to form a long banner across the Powderhorn property as part of the weekend festival decorations. When the owners were away at tea between 6 and 8.30 p.m. someone removed the entire string of flags. The Powderhorn is offering a reward of $200 for information leading to the recovery of the flags. "They're a high profile thing that would be hard to hide, so we're relying on people t o keep an eye open for us," Mr Helton said. He and his partner Mr Paul Scarf had intended erecting a number of vertical flag poles around the edge of their property for the newly-purchased flags. But they've dumped that plan until and if the flags are recovered.