Smokers look to stub out butt pinchers.

No ashtray is safe as desperate smokers turn to swiping cigarette butts from porches and verandahs across the Waikato.

Social media is abuzz over the mystery of the disappearing ashtrays, after they were reported stolen from homes in Hamilton, Te Awamutu and Taupo.

The crime wave follows a move by most smokers who now take their habit outside, often leaving cigarette butts neatly piled in ashtrays visible from the street.

One theory being butted about on Facebook is that the ashtrays are collateral damage as thieves craving a nicotine fix roll the stolen butts into second-hand smokes.

Among those hit is Te Awamutu resident Lisa Manaia, who had her prized crystal ashtray stolen from her porch last Friday.

“I was smoking as usual outside, it would have been just before the sun went down that I noticed the ashtray was gone.”

Manaia had heard on Facebook that Kihikihi residents were losing their ashtrays, as did someone else on her street.

“Damn thing about it was that they took my crystal ashtray. Now we are sitting out there with our hakatere [run-down] ashtray.”

Although she doesn’t feel unsafe, she still is uncomfortable with the intrusion.

“It stumped me that they want to take an ashtray in the first place! It’s disgusting that you are going around collecting people’s butts out of their own ashtrays.”

Claudelands resident Matthew Johns nearly caught some butt grabbers on his property the other day.

“It’s not the butt thieving that annoys me. It’s the fact that they’re snooping around my house uninvited and are complete strangers to me.”

He saw a couple of men walk up his driveway and approach the house, before they quickly turned around and left – once they saw there were no butts to pinch.

“I didn’t click until I went out for a ciggie and the ashtray was empty. If I don’t empty it [the ashtray] people sneak right up to my door to raid it!”

At first, residents thought it was a prank but then stories emerged from all over the Waikato of people’s ashtrays being stolen.

Te Awamutu police Sergant Chris Greenwood confirmed there have been no official reports of stolen ashtrays but recommends that people secure their ashtrays inside, as they would with bikes and shoes.

Manaia said she did not contact the police over the theft of her crystal ashtray but she intends to report it if it happens again.

“If I do find out who it was [long pause], I am gonna yell and scream because it’s still an intrusion onto my property.”

However, Hamilton East resident Ashley Baker has found her own way to stub out the problem.

“I have not had missing ashtrays as I fill them with water. Then the butts are useless to them.”