Reunited with her treasures

Published: February 26, 2007 | 5635th good news item since 2003

Medals and jewellery with great sentimental value have been returned to their delighted owner more than a year after they were stolen.

Isabel Paterson lost a number of prized possessions when her home was burgled in September 2005.

But when the connected court case was over and the items were cleared as evidence, the police had another case to solve – trying to trace their rightful owners through the initials and dates on them.

Constable Helen Chiell of the Glen Innes police inquiry unit says Mrs Paterson’s home was one of three units in St Johns that were broken into on the same day and her items were kept with a hoard of other stolen goods.

“We really wanted to find the rightful owner of all the goods but these medals stood out,” she says.

“It was clear they would be of great sentimental value.”

Mrs Paterson says: “I am so grateful to the East & Bays Courier for running an article with photographs of the jewellery.

“A friend called me and suggested I take a look at the piece.

“During a visit to my hairdresser I flipped through a copy of the paper and saw my mother’s and husband’s medals. Nearly everything in the picture was mine.”

A visit to the police station confirmed this and the items retrieved each have a story woven into the 84-year-old’s life, including:

A brooch she bought for her mother Jenny Campbell while living in Fiji

Her mother’s Red Cross pin and her own Girl Guides badge

Her husband Campbell’s and her mother’s Member of the British Empire medals

And her father Archie Campbell’s lapel badges from an international bowling trip he took in 1921.

Mrs Paterson’s mother was involved in music and arts all her life and helped set up the first Auckland Musical Festival.

“There was also my badge for completing kindergarten training, which was awarded to me in 1942,” she says.

Mrs Paterson married late in life, travelled a lot and never did use that kindergarten training.

“I did travel to a sugar plantation in Fiji to work at a local school but had to wait for the position, so I took a job with the Bank of New Zealand in the meantime.”

She intended to be there only a few months but ended up staying seven years, working at the Newmarket branch.

Her husband and parents have both since died and having the stolen items back restores a little of their presence to her life.

“I’m so very impressed with Helen Chiell from Glen Innes police station and the effort and care she took to trace me,” says Mrs Paterson.

“She was kind enough to actually bring my goods home to me so I wouldn’t have to make another trip out to the station.”

Published in Found and Justice
See also: www.stuff.co.nz