Sometimes Wishes Are Robbed--- Even From A Wishing Well

You may be part of the skeptical crowd, but you'll change your mind when you see that Pukekura Park's wishing well does fulfill a few wishes. Not the wishes of coin-tossers, but those of coin thieves. It has enabled a number of them to steal money thrown into it.

Fernery technical officer, Donna Christiansen, rues that the "wishing well coin theft" has been too much in the last five months. So hundreds of dreams have been picked by thieves who stole some coins from the city park's wishing well.

In fact, the situation has got out of hand, so a surveillance camera has been installed at New Plymouth's Pukekura Park fernery in order to catch the penny thieves who steal the coins that are being thrown into the goldfish pond by people who are still making wishes, according to stuff.co.nz.

Fernery technical officer Donna Christiansen agreed that coins in the pond had been getting stolen by people for the past so many years. In the last five months, especially, there has been too much thievery---more than you could wish. "It's during the day. You see the kids hanging around. It's always the same ones and they wait until you leave and then get in there," she said.

You can spot some wet foot prints around the well, and their miniscule sizes show that the thieves are small, not too big. Park curator Chris Connolly said the thieves weren't always school children and it is obvious that the stealers were breaking into the conservatory at night.

"Word must have got around," he said. "I've never made a wish in it but perhaps I should wish for a way to put a stop to this."

How much money was stolen? The amount was not clear, but Connolly said that when the employees cleaned it out, they got between $20 to $30, which was set aside to spend on fish food and fernery expenses.

"It varies a lot. It's usually out-of-town visitors so during the summer we get quite a lot. But not so much in the winter," he said.

Well, the idea may have started in Europe, but does this mean that it is going to end in the world down under? It isn't too clear.