Digger grapple stolen from logging site after being gifted to 'bullied' worker

It was meant to be an act of kindness from co-workers to a forestry worker who’d struggled with bullying, but ended with the worker feeling "devastated and depressed".

Connor Brownlee, who runs a logging business in Waiuku, south Auckland, said his co-workers felt bad for his business partner's son who contracted to their company, as they learned he’d been bullied in the industry for many years.

The young man, whom Stuff has chosen not to name, had worked hard despite his tough start and saved up enough to buy himself a digger, so he might realise his dream of kick-starting his own forestry business.

In an act of charity, Brownlee and his six employees pitched in to buy the young man a grapple for the digger – used to lift trees, unload trucks and move logs.

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The grapple arrived last Friday, Brownlee said, and the team had been planning to install it onto the man's digger once the weather calmed on Tuesday.

However, plans were dashed when workers arrived to their logging site in the morning to discover their gift had been stolen.

The grapple is worth $20,000 and was relatively heavy, given it was set to be used by an eight-tonne digger.

Brownlee reckons multiple people would have been involved in stealing the grapple given its weight, and he said his business partner was "beside himself".

"It's pretty piss poor if I’m honest. We’re a small community here where everybody looks out for one another, it really knocks you down when something like this happens," he said.

The experienced forestry worker said while grapples weren't hard to come by, thefts like this can knock small businesses back due to the industry's expensiveness.

"The industry is hard enough with the export issues in China, the price dropping to almost nothing during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it's almost not worth doing it," he said.

"[The young man] worked hard for himself, he's an awesome guy and just works and works. He's very devastated and depressed about the whole thing."

Incidents of stolen construction equipment have proven to be expensive losses for businesses in times past. An excavator valued at $40,000 was stolen from a Christchurch work yard back in 2013.

A year later, thieves made off with a $25,000 digger from another yard in Christchurch, along with several thousand dollars in tools. Then in 2016, a 1.8 tonne digger was taken from a west Auckland worksite along with five bucket attachments.

Police have been approached for comment.