GAZZA AGONY OVER £140K JEWEL THEFT
Fears Piers’ tweet triggered raid on home
PAUL Gascoigne last night made a tearful plea to burglars who stole £140,000 of jewellery from his flat to return treasured items belonging to his late dad.
England football hero Gazza broke down as he told the Sunday People: “It’s sad because I have so many memories attached to the items.
“My dad’s belongings meant so much to me, I’d really like them back.”
The raiders’ haul included a £2,000 gold cigar cutter and watch both owned by his father John who died aged 72 from cancer two years ago.
Gazza, 53, claims the thieves struck after Piers Morgan posted a picture of him on Twitter sitting in the ITV Life Stories audience on Monday.
Knowing he was not home, they ransacked his luxury seaside flat in Poole, Dorset.
The haul included a £40,000 gold diamond-encrusted watch bought with his first pay cheque from Tottenham and a Championship medal from Glasgow Rangers.
To add insult to injury, the burglars took two STEAKS from the freezer.
Gazza joked that he was left with only chicken – a nod to the infamous moment 10 years ago when he turned up holding fishing rods and cooked chicken at a police stand-off with killer Raoul Moat in Northumberland.
Owe
The former Newcastle, Everton and Middlesbrough midfielder said: “Police think that the picture Piers posted of us filming in London could have alerted burglars that I was away.
“But they must have been hungry, they took my two steaks out of the freezer.
“At least they were considerate enough to leave me some chicken.”
And he joked: “Piers, I’ll let you off on the gold watch, but you owe me two f***ing steaks.”
Gazza left home on Monday to support lifelong friend and ex-wimbledon hardman Vinnie Jones – who has helped Gazza battle alcohol addiction – film his Life Stories chat in London.
Interviewer Piers, 55, spotted him in the audience and posted a snap online, with the caption: “Great to see Gazza in the Life Stories audience today, supporting his old nut-cracking mate Vinnie Jones.”
But hours later Gazza – who clinched 57 international caps and scored one of England’s greatest ever goals against Scotland at Euro 96 – returned home to discover his prized possessions were missing.
Police were called at 2.48pm on Tuesday and a forensic team dusted the scene for fingerprints and DNA.
The thieves’ haul included five watches, two bracelets, three rings, diamond earrings, £800 designer sunglasses and a genuine New York
Police Department badge.
The raid f ol l ows a s t r i ng of burglaries on professional footballers’ homes. En England and Tottenham star Dele Alli, 24, was attacked by armed raiders demandin demanding valuables at his Londo London home in May. Gazza said: “I think all the footballers are targeted because they’re f***ing loaded. I don’t really see many footballers any more.
“We still text and stay in touch.
Apart from Vinnie Jones who I still see, I don’t actually see any of the others. When I was invited to go and support Vinnie for his Life Stories, I had to do it. I wanted to be there to s support him in the same way that he’s b been there for me.
“Piers just took a quick picture of u us and posted it to Twitter.
“That’s the problem with social media. You can do something so simple and you never know who’s going to see it.
“I was surprisingly calm at first w when talking to the policeman. I was g gutted about the stuff that was stolen but my priority was to tidy up and put everything back in correct position.
“They had taken some jewellery in
one of those little presentation bags they give you in jewellers with a bow on top.
“They undid the bow, took the jewellery out and then re-tied the it.
“But when I noticed the cigar cutters, that’s when it hit me and I started crying.
Personal
“It was upsetting looking around. Then I pulled myself together but every time I looked at the cigar cutter box knowing they had stolen that....
“And one of them being my dad’s that I was given after he died of cancer – I would break down crying. They’ve also gone through lots of personal stuff, they’ve read the poems I’ve written to myself, they’ve even looked through my will.”
Piers told the Sunday People: “I definitely posted something on Twitter, confirming he was at Elstree Studios.
“I’m very sorry to hear about this. Paul is a great guy and the last thing he needs is to be burgled at a time like this. If social media alerted people that he was not at home
that would
CHUM: Ex-player Vinnie Jones be e extremely unfortunate. The least I can d do ib is buy hi him some new steaks. k Does he want T-bone or rib eye?”
Alcoholic Gazza, who has described himself as a “connoisseur of rehabs”, has blown a £20 million fortune during his booze hell.
Earlier this year he revealed he spent £20,000 in Australia getting antialcohol lh l pellets ll sewn i into hi his stomach h that make him feel sick if he drinks.
Now, after the devastating burglary, he said: “The thing I find really hard is I am always really nice to everybody, I’m always giving presents to people, even taxi drivers. I’d give someone the shirt off my back if they needed it. I’ve always been like that. It’s just sad to think it could be someone I’ve been nice to who has taken advantage.”
Dorset Police said: “Enquiries are underway into the incident. No arrests have been made.”