On Sunday night, University of Otago fourth year medical student Stephen Potter’s car was broken into in George St in Invercargill.
The thieves, who took a couple of bottles of alcohol, also took a voice recorder and some surveys that were a part of Mr Potter’s research.
Mr Potter said he had some partial luck after the surveys were found in a green waste wheelie bin on Monday morning.
Although the voice recorder had still not been found, he was hopeful it would soon show up and a neighbour had been in touch with him with some CCTV footage of two people stealing from cars on the street.
"It seems they were just taking small things that people wouldn’t notice and I think that’s what they tried to do to me.
"They had masks on and the camera footage wasn’t great but we know there was two of them and we roughly know their build."
Mr Potter suspected the thieves mistakenly took his research materials because they needed a bag to carry the liquor.
"It seemed like they wanted the booze more and, honestly, enjoy your booze, guys, it’s fine — take the drinks. I just want my work back," he said.
Mr Potter said the thieves had taken his iPad and laptop out of the bag and left them in the car.
He was surprised they had not taken either of those things along with his expensive personal computer that had been left in the boot.
Mr Potter said the research was a summer interest project on drug harm reduction.
He had interviewed 13 people at needle exchange centres in Christchurch and Dunedin about their experiences in the healthcare system, trying to get treatment for injuries and dealing with stigma.
The voice recorder had five interviews of Dunedin residents, which were critical because they offered a southern perspective.
"I thought those interviews were really high quality. They were real articulate speakers who could clearly express what was going wrong in the healthcare system."
His father’s car had also been broken into but nothing had been stolen from it.
Mr Potter was offering a $300 reward for the bag’s return.
The reward was coming out of the research fund and a bit of help from his mother.
"I’ll be bloody thankful, I’ll hug them. I don’t even care if they were the ones who stole it, I’ll hug them.
"I’m here to make healthcare more accessible. I just want that knowledge back so I can push forward with my advocacy for people who inject drugs because I think it’s really important that these people get the care they deserve."
