Love Gone Wrong: Boozed New Zealand Man Burns Ex-girlfriend's Boat, Steals Surfboard

It’s the ageless story of boy loves girl, girl cheats on boy, boy finds paramour’s boat, burns it, takes surfboard.

New Zealander Daniel Wafer was charged this week with arson and theft. It’s the ageless story of boy loves girl, girl cheats on boy, boy finds paramour’s boat, burns it, takes surfboard.

According to police records, a very drunk Daniel, who is thirty-seven, set his ex’s boat The Wairangi on fire after a late-night argument, but not before tenderly removing a surfboard from its cabin and putting it in his car.

According to police,

At 1.38am, Wafer and an associate headed down to F pier at Nelson Marina where the ex-partner’s vessel, The Wairangi, was moored. Numerous other vessels were moored nearby, some of which had people living on board. The pair boarded The Wairangi and Wafer’s associate took a surfboard off the vessel, believing it belonged to a friend of Wafer’s. Wafer then set fire to the main wheelhouse area before leaving the boat at 1.41am, picking up the surfboard and putting it in his vehicle.The pair then left the scene and went to another car park, where Wafer covertly recorded the boat as it was on fire. Firefighters were called out to the scene about 2.15am and while they were able to prevent the 7-metre-long vessel from sinking, the boat was almost destroyed.When spoken to by police, Wafer initially claimed he never went on the boat or even the pier it was moored on. After being challenged with a statement made by his associate, Wafer admitted he stole the surfboard but vehemently denied starting the fire. When challenged with surveillance footage, he admitted returning to the area to watch the fire but continued to deny he started the fire.