Former All Black Bernie Fraser has had a haul of personal memorabilia returned to him after a New Zealand storage company sold it all on TradeMe.
The saga began when Fraser’s New Zealand credit card expired and his automatic payments to National Storage in Lower Hutt no longer went through. Fraser is stuck in Australia and the person who was listed as his contact had passed away.
After the lapse in payments, National Storage sold the contents on TradeMe for $660.
The sale of the goods comes after Bernie's daughter, singer Brooke Fraser, posted her concerns on social media on Thursday.
"A storage unit in Wellington, New Zealand belonging to our father – former All Black and Wellington rugby player Bernie Fraser – was recently sold without his or our family’s knowledge," Brooke's post read.
"The unit was filled with entirely personal property of great sentimental value to our family – childhood family photos and videos, artworks, school assignments, etc. – in addition to all the memorabilia our dad kept from his years of significant contribution to rugby – 55 games including 23 test matches for our country and 124 games for Wellington.
"We only became aware of the sale of this unit when an anonymous person, concealing their identity, contacted us with a photograph of some of the personal items they had come into possession of (childhood photos, family letters, etc.). It took our family some time to piece together what had happened and – needless to say - our dad is distraught.
"When we expressed to the anonymous emailer that we wished to purchase everything back, over the course of days this person continued to significantly raise their price before abruptly announcing they had sold it all to another party.
"We are relieved that later they anonymously returned a small box of our family photographs and video cassettes to the storage facility – items that would have been lost forever had they not done so."
Police say they are aware of the matter and are making inquiries to determine what has occurred.
In the social media post, Brooke also appealed to anyone who had bought the memorabilia off the original TradeMe purchaser.
"We are asking NZ sports memorabilia collectors, auction houses, and TradeMe sleuths to please be on the eye out for any late 1970s/early 1980s Wellington rugby/All Blacks related paraphernalia that you see come on the market," she wrote.
In a fortunate turn of events, a buyer came forward and returned the remainder of Fraser's personal items.
A family spokesperson told 1News a private collector "whom bought a large chunk of the rugby memorabilia reached out and offered to give everything back".
"The family have decided it’s better to have it proudly displayed in his collection which he opens up for charity events, rather than gathering dust in a lockup.
"This collector was made aware of the situation after the purchase, and called National Storage to notify them, to which they replied “they weren’t interested," the post read.
The family say they are "overjoyed with the result", and will continue to pursue legal action against National Storage and the original TradeMe buyer who tried to extort money from the Frasers.
1News has contacted both National Storage and the person who allegedly purchased the possessions from the company for comment about the claims.
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