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When her 22-year-old son died in a motorcycle accident, Christchurch woman Jean Nel wanted to bury the clothes he died in as a memorial.
His “head was spinning” when his belongings, including his jeans that were cut off after the accident, were allegedly stolen from his car while being transported from Auckland to Christchurch.
Albert de Bruin, known by his middle name Reenen, died on March 20, 2018, after his motorcycle collided with a truck on Selwyn Rd, near Rolleston.
Nel was living in Auckland at the time and went to Christchurch for her son’s funeral.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Christchurch woman Jean Nel says it “doesn’t make any logical sense” for people to steal the clothes in which her son Reenen de Bruin died.
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His other son, David, towed Reenen’s white Toyota Altezza to Auckland and stayed at the family home.
Two weeks ago, Nel returned to Christchurch and arranged for the car to be shipped.
He used Ship My Vehicle company and the car was delivered to his new home in Avonside on October 13.
Nel left many of Reenen’s belongings in the car and said the company told him “it would be fine.”
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Instructions saying “please lock” were written on the car’s windshield for the trip.
He later discovered that the company’s website said not to leave items in the cars they were transporting.
When the vehicle arrived in Christchurch it had been “looted” and many of his son’s belongings were missing, including a motorcycle helmet, tools and a duffel bag filled with his old work clothes, he said.
Another helmet and some shoes had been left behind.
But the bloodstained jeans her son wore when he died were also missing. They were still in the paper “hospital bag” in which you received them.
Nel had waited until he returned to Christchurch to bury them somewhere special and plant a native tree.
“I was upset by the way they went through the car without respect, and got to take a hospital bag with someone’s bloodied clothes,” he said.
I wanted any information on where the clothes might be.
“They are of no value to anyone but me. It doesn’t make any logical sense at all. “
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Items that were still in the car when it arrived in Christchurch.
Nel had contacted the ports of Lyttelton and Auckland and Ship My Vehicle.
If the jeans were recovered, he would bury them in Port Hills, where Reenen liked to go, or near the Waimakariri River. He went fishing and camping with friends there and had once floated on an inflatable mattress, he said.
His son was “brave”.
“He was very loyal to his friends and always defended the little one. He would take his shirt off his back to help other people. “
Ship My Vehicle owner Robert Welts said what happened was “sad and unfortunate.”
The company worked through third-party vendors and followed their terms, but never “saw or tampered with the vehicles,” he said.
The company took responsibility for the damage to the vehicle, but not for the items inside the car.
Nel was told that if he left items in the car, it would be at his own risk, he said. He also recommended that he leave the items in the trunk, he said.
A spokesperson for Lyttelton Port Company said it was investigating the theft and was interviewing the companies that tampered with the vehicle and reviewing the video footage.
Auckland Port Company is understood to be investigating the incident.
