Two bronze dolphins stolen from the beachfront home of a Wellington couple have been recovered from a Levin scrap metal dealer's yard.
Jenny and Stuart Young, from Breaker Bay, discovered their statue of three bronze dolphins vandalised, with the top two dolphins missing, early Saturday.
Mrs Young said the couple bought the sculpture for $16,000 in New York 16 years ago. It had sat unguarded at the front of their property ever since and was a popular feature of the neighbourhood. The couple offered a $10,000 reward for recovering the dolphins.
Mr Young went Levin to identify the sculpture and his wife told The Dominion Post they were delighted to have them back.
"I think the whole community will be so pleased."
The recovered sculpture appeared to be undamaged.
Constable Rochelle Taylor said the dolphins were discovered at the scrap-metal yard after the story of their theft was published. "Because of the reward offered, someone has come forward with some information advising they'd seen them at the scrap-metal dealers ... and we then followed up."
