Tauranga city parking meters ripped from the ground and robbed in a daring overnight raid could cost ratepayers as much as $50,000 to replace.
Five parking metres at the Cameron Rd end of 1st Ave were targeted in the smash and grab, some time between Sunday evening and yesterday morning.
The meters were ripped from the concrete footpath and pried open.
They were left strewn on 1st Ave footpaths yesterday morning.
Tauranga City Council communications adviser Marcel Currin said it was not yet known how much money was stolen but it was unlikely to exceed the cost of replacing the machines.
"The replacement value of each of the units is between $9000 and $10,000," he said.
Motorists would still need to ensure they paid for parking while the matter was being dealt with, he said.
"People still need to display a ticket when parking in those areas, even though some of the machines are gone. We will be looking at the distribution of pay and display machines [today] to make sure there is a machine within reasonable distance of each parking space."
Senior Sergeant Chris Summerville said the attack was well planned.
"It's not like it's a homeless person going around with a screwdriver trying to get into them," he said.
"It was well organised but we have solved these [kind of cases] in the past."
Mr Summerville said police believed a vehicle was used to smash over the meters.
Broken glass, which appeared to have come from a windscreen, was found near one meter. Mr Summerville said police would continue their investigations today.
Contractors collected the meters yesterday.