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What the Hell Happened at Woofington's - Season 1 Episode 3 engsub fullfilm🍿🍿
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00:00First up tonight, though, a bizarre story from Wellington, which has the people of Brooklyn scratching their heads.
00:08A dog castle called Wuffington's.
00:12A castle that functions as a luxury dog kennel in the hills of Wellington.
00:17Has been searched by armed police.
00:22When I describe Wuffington's to people, I describe it as a mental asylum.
00:28I saw what happened to my friend there. I saw how the dogs were kept.
00:32It's not just what you see from the outside.
00:35You know, you kind of wish a dog could talk and tell you exactly what was going on.
00:42Can't exist consequences for what he's done.
00:59As a journalist, there's some stories you just can't get out of your head.
01:04For the past seven years, that story for me has been Wuffington's.
01:09And the question of why police would raid a luxury dog retreat in a castle.
01:19Finally, after years of obsessing over this question, I decided to get to the bottom of it once and for
01:25all.
01:28My first step was figuring out why there was a castle in the hills of Wellington to begin with.
01:40That led me to Brian Willman, the eccentric Wellington millionaire who built the castle back in 1999.
01:52Brian Willman's got the best views in Wellington.
01:55It's unique. There's nothing around here. There's nothing in Wellington like this, certainly.
02:01He bought a decommissioned airwaves radar bunker in 1998 and built the castle there.
02:06My son's actually quite concerned that I'm working in this castle.
02:09As far as he's concerned, dragons live in castles.
02:15Most of his business is focused on high-interest loans and real estate.
02:20There's not much to see inside yet.
02:22This will be the great hall or meeting place.
02:25But castles need deep pockets.
02:28Uh, big buildings cost big money, yes.
02:32He planned to open the castle as a convention centre, but never seemed to do anything with it,
02:37until he suddenly opened it as Wuffington's nearly two decades later.
02:41Come on.
02:45Come on, buddy.
02:48Come on, buddy.
02:49We built a luxury dog kennel.
02:54We are a castle.
02:57This castle has been a mystery.
02:59A lot of people have been questioning, what is this place?
03:04What I'd say to people that think this is a bit crazy, I mean, yeah, it is,
03:08but I invite anyone out here to see what comfort and style their dogs are going to be staying in.
03:15Hey, buddy.
03:15Paw. Paw.
03:17Paw.
03:21The first time I heard about Wuffington's was around 2015.
03:27Good boy.
03:28We didn't hear many details ourselves until we went to the Pet Expo.
03:34We were welcomed there with a young lady giving flyers to this place, Wuffington's.
03:40They were there with the branded Porsche, which was going to be the dog pickup vehicle.
03:45It was a no-expenses bed.
03:48International kennel system installed into this castle.
03:54This place has been kitted out for the dogs.
03:57They can spend the day listening to some music or even just watching a bit of TV.
04:02There is 18 TVs around this place.
04:05Luxury was what Wuffington stood for, but it also stood out to me all the things that really
04:13that they were marketing themselves around was very human-centered, as opposed to about what
04:18would really be the things that the dog would actually prioritise.
04:23So I don't know many dogs that pick up that they're in a Porsche versus a Toyota versus a Skoda,
04:29or whether there's a TV.
04:36I've had people sort of question that I have invited them out.
04:40I've gone home, and within a few days I've got them booking their dogs in here.
04:46In those early years, I think it actually really started and tried to establish a good reputation,
04:53and no doubt that was a lot of the great work that Nick, as the living manager, would have been
04:58doing there.
04:59In the years following his departure, I didn't get much of an insight into the people that were really making
05:07the place run.
05:08But there was an increase just in the general sense, the general feedback from snippets from customers,
05:15that unusual, unexpected things were beginning to happen.
05:19Sometimes people weren't being met and greeted and interacted in a professional way.
05:25Just little insights like that was really all I recall coming back.
05:30It wasn't really until news headlines started being made that were really, really surprising.
05:43Back in 2019, I was a police reporter for The Post.
05:45We got an email, I think it was about just after midday.
05:49All it said basically was that there was a raid happening at Wolfington's.
05:52Drove up there with photographer Rosa.
05:55It was clearly winding up.
05:57Couldn't see if anyone had been arrested, anything like that.
06:01As you can see in the photos, it seems like Brian Wilman's walking around.
06:05It's not the kind of place you would have expected to receive a police raid, you know, it'll be at
06:10the receiving end of one.
06:12I remember getting in touch with Robbie, the manager.
06:15I remember being angry.
06:16I remember him trying to suggest that the search was actually happening at a different property behind Wolfington's,
06:22which, given its isolation, seems a bit unlikely.
06:27And, you know, not really implied threats, but sort of, oh, well, don't go publishing rubbish in your paper because
06:36it'll affect our business and blah, blah, blah.
06:38You know, the kind of reaction that maybe you might anticipate if someone's just been subject to a police inquiry
06:42and you've contacted them.
06:46It was deeply unusual.
06:48I mean, we wrote the headline, Mystery at Wolfington's, you know, because it was a mystery.
06:52What had happened that caused police to be there?
06:54I mean, they don't show up with that larger search party for no good reason.
07:00You know, would charges follow?
07:03What did it mean for the business?
07:06What did it mean for the dogs?
07:16Well, the Wolfington's Instagram showed dogs having a good time, reviews online painted a different picture.
07:39My name's Marita Vandenberg.
07:41This is my lovely fur baby, Raven.
07:45I went to Wolfington's when I had a job where I couldn't work from home for two days a week.
07:52I actually asked a very fussy friend who sent her dog, Mackenzie, up there and she said,
07:58Oh, it's wonderful. Mackenzie loves it.
08:01I had also known that there were rumours about the place up there.
08:05I think there'd been something a bit off the legal radar.
08:12I didn't put much stock in the rumours because I just wanted somewhere nice to send the dog.
08:20When I went to Wolfington's, I went through the big medieval door and a guy called Robbie
08:27He seemed to be the manager in charge.
08:29And I quite liked Robbie.
08:33He was like one of those East Endery type, you know, rough chaps.
08:38He looked as if he'd lived a hard life, but I could tell he really loved the dog.
08:43So that's what I wanted.
08:47So later on, I did question his ability to manage the accounts and everything.
08:54He'd drop him off at really odd times as well.
08:57So there'd be constant texting with Robbie to say,
08:59Oh, what time can I expect the dog to come back?
09:01So I knew that there was a level of unreliability there.
09:11After a few months, there came a night when Robbie was really late bringing Raven home.
09:18And I got more and more worried.
09:20I tried to text.
09:22There was no reply.
09:23And I think when it was, I think dark, I thought, no, no, this isn't right.
09:29So I got in my car.
09:30I was thinking he'd driven off the side of the hill because it's a long winding hill.
09:35I got to Wolfendons, but it was locked.
09:38But the vans were there.
09:41I thought, I don't like this.
09:45So I went home.
09:47You know, I was pretty upset by then.
09:49Yeah, I actually called the police.
09:52And the police just sort of said, oh, this is about a dog.
09:55If it was a child, we'd send someone up there.
09:57I didn't sort of say that this was a place that had a bit of a sinister history.
10:01And maybe they would have gone.
10:03And they would have found something really interesting after what I found in the morning when I did go there.
10:14As soon as I woke up at dawn, I'd actually tried to call Robbie.
10:17And Robbie had answered this time.
10:19But he said, I've got a friend who's in hospital.
10:21I've got to go and pick him up.
10:22Don't come.
10:23There's no one here.
10:24So, of course, I got in my car, drove up there.
10:27And this time, I pushed on the gate and realised that the chain was only in the middle.
10:34And that I could sneak under the gap.
10:37So I snuck in.
10:40And then the big medieval front door swung open.
10:44And Robbie just, he didn't even stand there and talk to me.
10:47I just saw the back of him.
10:49And he said, I'm going to get Raven for you.
10:50He's fine.
10:53When he came back with Raven, I could see that Robbie was covered in blood all down his face.
10:59As I walked up to him, I could see there was blood and glass on the big foyer area.
11:04And I said, Robbie, what's happened?
11:06And he said, I fell off the ladder.
11:08And I didn't for a moment believe that.
11:10And you think, I'd like to believe that.
11:12But I don't think so.
11:14So I went home.
11:16And that was, you know, the last time I went to Wolfington's.
11:20And I didn't trust what was going on up there, obviously.
11:27Hi, it's Baz here from TVNZ.
11:29Thanks so much for sending those answers to my questions through.
11:33I just wanted to follow up about one of your answers where you said that
11:36Wolfington's ended up on the police's radar because of a kidnapping case.
11:44So I've actually had a few people tell us that there's a connection between Wolfington's
11:47and the finger-cutting kidnapping case that happened earlier in 2019.
11:52And I was just hoping to confirm with you whether that is the
11:55kidnapping case you were referring to or not.
11:59It was.
12:01Court reporting shows that in March of 2019, a woman was kidnapped over a drug debt
12:06and taken to a beach in Lyle Bay.
12:09A chain was put around her neck and she was let out and held under the water.
12:15They then dragged her back onto the beach and cut off one of her fingers.
12:20For the next four days, she was chained up while her captors smoked meth until she managed to escape.
12:27OK, can you give me any more information about what the connection between
12:31that case and Wolfington's was?
12:35OK, so you can't.
12:37OK, cool. We'll just wait for those police documents that were requested to come through
12:42and hopefully that shines a light on what the connection was.
12:57This is wild, and not really what we thought it was going to be.
13:01The search warrant was for drugs.
13:04They thought that methamphetamine was being dealt out of this castle where there's a luxury dog
13:10retreat. And they also thought they'd find fantasy type substances, which is GBL, GHB,
13:16and is sometimes known as the date rape drug.
13:19There must have been some kind of drug connection to the kidnapping case,
13:22because I spoke to a bunch of sources and they said that Wolfington's wasn't directly related
13:26to the events of that case, but the police must have identified some kind of drug connection,
13:32and that led them to producing the search warrant.
13:34But the insane part is that when they actually did the raid, they only found very small amounts of meth
13:41and weed. But what they did find were these two bombs.
13:47So these are two metal canisters wrapped in a masking tape fuse and strapped with screws.
13:56The raid report shows that when police showed up, the manager Robbie Bronley told them
14:01they would find something disturbing in the safe in his bedroom.
14:05They looked inside and found the first bomb and then found the second one hidden in a wall cavity nearby.
14:11Robbie admitted to making the improvised explosive devices for self-protection purposes.
14:19So the police ended up charging the live-in manager Robbie Bronley for possession of these
14:24improvised explosive devices. But when it went to court, that was actually downgraded to
14:29a pyrotechnic device using black powder because they were so poorly made that they wouldn't have
14:33actually worked as an explosive. So Wolfington's ended up on the police's radar because of a
14:41kidnapping case. And then they produced a search warrant to look for drugs at the castle.
14:46And what they ultimately found was bombs. So honestly, I'm not quite sure yet how to connect all of those
14:53dots.
14:59By the time the second story came around and I've been doing a few more calls, I had a conversation
15:03with
15:03Brian Willman. He was suggesting that, oh, maybe they found some gunpowder and it was just their mistake
15:10because, you know, all sorts of farmers had gunpowder around the place. He was making out like it had
15:15happened almost, I don't know, incidentally, a mistake that like, oh, well, there might have been a bit of
15:20gunpowder there, you know, claiming ignorance to why police would show up in the first place.
15:25You know, sort of suggested that maybe former employees had called it in and really, really
15:31distancing himself from, from any of the, any of the problem.
15:37Okay. We're going to try calling Brian Willman for the first time.
15:40We literally have no idea how this is going to go. So only one way to find out.
15:51Yes. Hi there, Mr. Willman? Yes. Hi, my name's Baz McDonald. I'm a journalist with TVNZ.
15:58Have you got a minute to chat? No, I've got a minute. Okay, great. Um, I'm looking at doing a
16:03piece
16:04on your castle up on Hawkins Hill. I was wondering if you'd be open to having a chat with me
16:08about
16:09the history of the castle and the businesses you've run out of it and a bit about your career as
16:13well.
16:17Well, I don't mind you doing it about the building, but I don't, I'm not sure I want to get
16:21involved
16:21myself in it. I will come back to you with a yes or no. Yeah, sure. Um, how about I
16:27send you an email
16:28with a bit of a brief about what we're looking to do and you get back to me? What's your
16:33first name?
16:33Oh, um, Baz. B-A-Z. B-A-Z. Oh, good name. I like that. Okay, great. I'll be in
16:41touch soon.
16:47Well, that went better than expected. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes from here.
16:54Good start though. It's good. It's good.
17:01You know, I had been receiving emails at the time suggesting a lot of different things,
17:07not suggesting, you know, improvised explosive advice.
17:12So yeah, emails around, I mean, people had been there as a business and they'd put it in a Google
17:18review. What we left out was that we thought the place smelled like pot and it was a complete mess.
17:24An email saying, looking for a hidden bunker is not a myth. Among many, many other things.
17:34There's people interested because it's a unique situation, isn't it? It's a dog stay in a castle
17:38on the top of a windswept hill, you know. Something happened there and it was never fully understood.
17:47Yeah, I did receive some emails about the manager, Robbie Bromley and contained were allegations of
17:54other crimes, drugs, parole violation. There was clearly a lot more going on there.
18:01By the time he worked at Wolfington's, Robbie had a long list of prior convictions.
18:06His most high profile moment was in 2015 when he breached his bail conditions and led the police on a
18:12manhunt through the hills of Upper Hutt. Taking off up a four-wheel drive track after threatening to
18:17shoot himself, he abandoned his car and went bush until he was found by police dogs later that day.
18:26Beyond that, the only public information about Robbie was related to his involvement in motorsport.
18:34Big V8 motors, loud noise and mud splattering everywhere.
18:37And being slightly mad.
18:41When I tried to speak to people who knew him, I was met with a frosty reception.
18:46So one of the areas that we're looking at is Robert Bromley.
18:51I'm not talking about that at all. Don't mention my name. Thanks.
18:55Okay, sure. Bye-bye.
18:57Others, however, were much more open to sharing their views on Wolfington's.
19:01Stunk like pot and weed and God knows what else was being smoked in there.
19:05You know, you kind of wish a dog could talk and tell you exactly what was going on.
19:11What did you or they think was going on up there?
19:15Oh, a lab. Yes, a drug lab.
19:19We wouldn't even take anybody who'd been working at Wolfington's. I know that sounds nasty, but
19:24it was a bizarre place.
19:27Why is that? Why would you not hire anyone who was working there?
19:30Drugs and various things.
19:42My involvement with Wolfington's, I was the officer in charge of the aggravated
19:49burglary in 2020. At the time, I was a detective constable.
19:59One, one, fucking one, cunts.
20:01You get fucked, cunts.
20:06Someone had come and broken into the house.
20:09I fucking paid that bill for .
20:11Get fucked.
20:11Got your faces.
20:13And you're probably illegal fucking guns.
20:16And then they've taken off in a car.
20:18Fucking idiots.
20:22I was out in Johnsonville at the time, so I was in crime school, just listening to the radio
20:27about what was happening and kind of starting to make my way down to the car.
20:32Oh, vada, vada, vada, vada.
20:35It took Nauronga Gorge and then took the Johnsville off-ramp.
20:39The pursuit came through wrong side of the road here and then took a right on the no entry onto
20:44the off-ramp. And I was in the car park just over there, ready with spikes to come out and
20:49try to
20:49get it. But I was told, no, go out to Wolfington's. And I went, why? They're coming out here.
20:56And I thought, this is just like party pooper.
21:03So what do you remember of coming up here on the day of the robbery?
21:07Pretty sure I got lost. I think we did a couple of wrong turns and I thought,
21:13how does anyone know where this place is?
21:16It is really isolated up here, isn't it?
21:18So isolated.
21:23This is someone who's intentionally driven up this narrow road in the middle of nowhere
21:31up to a gate and then into a pin to then get through.
21:36What did them knowing the pin tell you about or what the situation might be?
21:40That someone knew it, either someone within the address had given it to them or had given it to
21:48someone else who has given it to them.
21:52But it meant that they were there for a reason. They knew where they were going and they knew how
21:57to get into the property. There is a reason for everything. Without knowing, you know that something
22:05else is going on. Why are you on our property? Why are you dropping the fence? Why are you having
22:09guns?
22:10Why on earth would these three people break into a house and then say that they're here to get money?
22:15You have a firearm and then get into a pursuit. That doesn't happen at some random person's house.
22:27So we're across some of the major events that happened up at Wolfington's. You know,
22:31the raid, the bomb, the burglary. But to make any sense of all of that I feel like we have
22:36to talk
22:36to some of the staff members there. Thankfully I just got a lead on that. I found this reddit comment
22:42from someone saying that the place was filthy and calling out a few of the employees there.
22:48And one of those employees responded saying that they really didn't appreciate what they were saying
22:54about them. That person's name is Georgia, so I'm hoping I can find her and she can shine a light
23:02on what
23:02was happening up there. I'm Georgia Mae Figgis. And I was the living manager at Wolfington's.
23:22When I describe Wolfington's to people, I describe it as a mental asylum. So you walk in, you come out,
23:30not quite right. Everything that happened there has just taken just such a toll on me.
23:42What?
23:48What?
24:01What?
24:03What?
24:04What?
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