How one bold mistake ended a prolific string of thefts

News
Crime

Author: Al Williams,
Publish Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2026, 7:14pm

Jennette Wikaira walked into a house where a woman and her son were home. She then helped herself to the woman's purse, mobile phone and watch in the kitchen and then left. Photo/123RF

Jennette Wikaira’s crime spree finally came to an end when she brazenly walked into a stranger’s house and stole from right under the occupant’s nose.

A woman was at home with her son earlier this year when Wikaira walked in the back door and stole her purse, mobile phone and watch from the kitchen.

She then left and headed down the road to a superette to buy a Prezzy card before police caught up with her a short time later, bringing a months-long end to her spree.

Wikaira had been targeting people for months with brazen thefts of bank cards, backpacks, wallets, handbags and jewellery.

During that time, she had been seen and confronted, and even photographed, by one of her victims in their backyard as she ran off with $30,000 worth of valuable items.

This week, Wikaira admitted a multitude of theft and dishonesty charges while appearing in the Christchurch District Court via audio-visual link from custody.

She is to be sentenced on September 28.

While the charges were not read out in court, Judge Brian Callaghan released the summary of facts to NZME.

The thefts and burglaries started in January and ended late last month. There were 11 victims.

Wikaira’s modus operandi largely involved breaking into parked cars and stealing the contents.

Between January and April, she broke into four vehicles across Christchurch and used the stolen bank cards.

On April 7, she smashed a car window and took a shoulder bag containing a driver’s licence, passport and bank cards.

She tried to use the bank card at a nearby dairy 15 minutes later, but the card was declined because of insufficient funds.

She was seen by the victim 15 minutes after stopping by the dairy, walking on a nearby street wearing the shoulder bag stolen from his vehicle.

He confronted her and recovered the shoulder bag, but his licence and bank cards were missing.

Wikaira denied knowing anything about the missing items, then took an emergency safety hammer and told the victim she would use it on him if he didn’t leave her alone.

He backed off, and she fled the scene.

Stolen bank cards, jewellery, passports

Three days later, she stole a backpack from a backyard.

It contained bank cards, which she used to spend $1000 at multiple locations.

The thefts continued in May when she broke into three vehicles and took bank cards.

She moved on to targeting houses and stole several items from an address, including a bank card.

Two weeks later, Wikaira saw that the residents of a home were away and smashed the back door window, taking gold jewellery, a laptop, phone, bank cards, passports and various ID cards from the victims and their children.

She left with the items and backpack but was seen by one of the victims, who photographed her fleeing through the backyard.

Just over an hour later, she sold four pieces of the stolen jewellery to a pawn shop for $3000.

An hour after that, she tried to use one of the bank cards stolen during a liquor store burglary, but the transaction was declined after the card was blocked by the victims.

She returned to the pawn shop the following day and sold a pair of gold earrings and a gold chain taken during the burglary for a combined $950.

The total value of the items taken in the burglary was estimated to be between $25,000 and $30,000.

The nine charges she faced for using bank cards to pecuniary advantage totalled $2145 in spending.

Police are seeking $3950 from the pawn shop, $95 for one victim whose bank would not provide a refund, and insurance excess for the victims of one of the burglaries.

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently, he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.