National Party headquarters in Auckland burgled overnight

Brian from New Lynn

Three laptops have been stolen from the National Party's headquarters in Auckland in a break-in last night, the party's deputy leader Paula Bennett has revealed. "We're still working our way through the details of it, but it looks like three laptops were stolen," she confirmed to the Herald this morning. She said the break-in triggered an alarm at the office on Auckland's Great South Rd in Greenlane. There are few details known at this point, but Bennett said it looked as though someone had "just grabbed them [the laptops] and run". "From an initial look, it looks like that's all that was stolen. "It's very early yet, but [police] are taking it seriously." A Police spokesperson said they received a report of a burglary at an address on Great South Rd, Epsom, about 9.45 this morning. "Police will attend the scene today." Bennett deferred any further comment on the matter to the party itself – a National Party spokesman has been contacted. But a staff member, who did not want to be named, told the break-in was "pretty odd". He said the office was "a bit of a bunker" and was partially underground. "You would have to know that we were here." He said that someone had jimmied a window open during the break-in. The stolen laptops were all encrypted, he said. Asked if there was any evidence that this was a politically motivated break-in, the staff member said: "It's pretty odd; we're in a pretty quiet part of Epsom".
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