Thieves take shine off Thames heritage museum | Waikato Times
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Thieves take shine off Thames heritage museum
Burgled seven times in 12 months, the volunteers running Thames’ Goldmine Experience have been left heart-broken after the theft of rare and “irreplaceable antiques”.
The Goldmine Experience is one of the Thames’ largest tourism operations and is run by the not-for-profit volunteer-based Hauraki Prospectors Association.
Committee member Russell Skeet said the organisation now faced a $6000 to $7000 bill to install security cameras and upgrade its overall site security after a spate of thefts, with four break-ins recorded in recent weeks.
Skeet said he suspected the thieves were not interested in the region’s history, or adding to their own collections of gold mining memorabilia, and unfortunately, the police had not made any arrests.
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He said some of the items taken included irreplaceable antiques, such as brass and copper gauges taken off working 19th century-era exhibits, assay equipment, historic scales, 150-year-old tools, and a significant collection of minerals.
Committee member Russell Skeet said it was the most intense level of theft experienced by their team and while all of the burglaries had been reported to police, they had not made any progress tracking the culprits down.
“To say our members are upset is an understatement,” he said.
“Our older stalwarts have devoted their lives to the site, with some working here on a daily basis. Several have put thousands of dollars of their own money in.”
Skeet said site security was being upgraded, including extra state-of-the-art cameras, but the cost of this would likely exceed $6000.
“In terms of priority, these thefts are probably on the lower side of the scale for police, but with so many break-ins we’d hope this would elevate the issue.”
Skeet said it was hard to put a value on almost irreplaceable items which were integral to the operation of some of the exhibits.
“The small furnace and steam engine parts are extraordinarily difficult to get, if they can be found at all.
“The thefts have now disabled their function and it takes away from the visitor experience.”
Skeet suspected the stolen items were being sold as scrap metal, or being used for nefarious purposes.
The Goldmine Experience has operated for more than 50 years in both an educational and tourism role, drawing in schools from around the Waikato and Auckland regions for history-related field-trips.
Guided tours include 150-year-old tunnels, gold-panning and the only known fully-operational steam powered stamper battery and processing plant in the world.