Burnside resident channels Poirot over mysterious courgette deliveries

Every house on a Burnside cul-de-sac has had at least one courgette on the doorstep every morning for three weeks, and one resident has turned her spare room into an incident room to find out why.

Margaret Pettigrew, 74, has a corkboard, a street map, red string and a notebook with a page headed "SUSPECTS". She has photographed every courgette where it landed. "Number 14 got two on Tuesday. Two. That's not random, that's a message," she said. "I've ruled out the Prendergasts. They can't grow a thing."

Plasterer Rangi Tahana at number 9 said he was less bothered than Margaret. "Found one on the ute seat Thursday. Doors were locked. Took it to smoko, cut it up, went alright with a pie actually." He has since received three more and a note reading "you're welcome".

Margaret has now written to Christchurch City Council asking whether the courgettes breach the water conservation notice, given somebody on the street is clearly growing "hundreds of the buggers" while she's been letting her tomatoes die "out of civic duty". A council spokesperson said the notice covered "usage, not produce" and that courgettes were "not a council matter unless placed on the footpath".

Asked about the wicker basket of roughly two dozen courgettes sitting beside her desk, Margaret said they were "evidence", then said they were "from Countdown", then closed the notebook.

The courgettes are still arriving. Rangi's been told to expect Tuesday's by Tuesday.