Dunedin locals turn up the heat after church's log splitter stolen

Kindness is at the heart of a Dunedin church's efforts to keep families warm this winter, but a cold-hearted thief has made their work much harder.

Dunedin Baptist Church owns a log splitter that slices through 130 cubic metres of wood every year, all of it being donated to chilly Dunedin families trying to stay warm.

However, 10 days ago caretaker Malcolm Cowan was horrified to find the splitter had been stolen.

He told Seven Sharp that though the unsolved crime had splintered his heart, the community is far from divided in supporting his work.

"We've had a lot of positive reactions from our community where our church is based ... people have offered donations of money towards another one, it's just been incredible really."

For Malcolm, it's been heartening and humbling to have received so much support, from kind souls bringing their own log splitter to the church to chop for a few hours, to people offering to outright replace the machine.

"We've had seven offers of wood splitters to use, so yeah, it's been great."

Though all the kind messages have warmed Malcolm's heart, more than anything he hopes his church's splitter can be found and anyone who has any tips lets them or the police know.

"All these offers of help are wonderful, but we'd just like to have our splitter back."

Learn more about Malcom and the cold case in the video above.