Today the total number of books that have been recovered from the search warrants executed on Wednesday and identified as being of interest to this enquiry number 369.
A further five that are also of interest have been brought to the Police as a result of the publicity. It is likely other genuine book collectors have books that have been stolen and we would like to hear from them also. We appreciate the distress that this situation may cause genuine dealers and collectors but would appreciate their assistance.
In addition to this there are numerous covers that have been removed from books that have been stolen form Libraries.
At this stage we cannot tell just how many books have come from which libraries yet but as the investigation progresses we will be able to establish this.
There are two stamps that have been used in books that were stolen and that were apparently used to help disguise the origin of the books.
Both are "Ex Libris" stamps and if anyone has purchased books from anyone in this group, which display the stamps then we would like to hear from those people.
No further arrests have been made at this stage and none else has appeared in court in connection with the investigation.
At present we are checking a storage area where there are a large number of books to identify any that are of interest to the investigation. This may take more than one day to finish. Librarians from the University of Canterbury library have been assisting us in this task.
John Rae
Detective Senior Sergeant