A charity says thousands of dollars' worth of commemorative ceramic poppies, placed on veterans' graves at multiple Auckland cemeteries, have been "deliberately and systematically" removed.
The New Zealand Remembrance Army, set up nine years ago in Porirua, has volunteers across the country who restore the gravestones and tell stories of people who have served New Zealand.
Among their work was a programme placing ceramic poppies on veterans' graves as a permanent and inexpensive mark of recognition.
Founder and managing director Simon Strombom told 1News the idea was to provide a mark of service which would endure, especially now the RSA was producing paper poppies.
The 38cm wide poppies, which cost the charity around $5 each to produce, were placed on veterans' graves as a lasting mark of recognition.
"The glue doesn't damage the stone, and people love it. We've done around 27,000 over New Zealand," he said.
Many of them were funded by family donations from relatives who wanted to mark a loved one's service without the expense of re-engraving a headstone.
Strombom said the scale of the theft only became clear when volunteers recently carried out a check of multiple sites, finding entire sections of cemeteries had been stripped.
"We suspect it's every cemetery we've visited."
At O'Neill's Point Cemetery on the North Shore, more than 250 poppies were taken, while at Manukau Memorial Gardens, the figure exceeded 400.
Strombom said he suspected every cemetery the charity had worked in across Auckland had been hit.
"All the ones that the New Zealand Navy had placed at O'Neills have been systematically stripped out," he said.
"It's thousands of dollars of our time and money, and some of the veterans are really upset about this."
Many of the missing poppies were purchased and placed around Anzac Day as a simple act of remembrance for parents, grandparents, partners, and relatives who served New Zealand.
The charity said it had checked directly with Auckland Council, which advised that the removals were not being carried out by council staff.
Strombom said the estimation of combined losses represented around 10% of the charity's annual budget, with the final scale still to be tallied.
"We're not a big charity, so you're talking quite major sums for us."
He described the thefts as "disgusting behaviour".
"It really upsets us as a charity that's there to recognise New Zealand veterans and servicemen and women."
The charity said it intended to replace the missing poppies and was asking anyone with information to come forward.
"It would be good if people could report it, someone's got a lot of poppies around," Strombom said.
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