Police seize charity shop print of burgled ex-care home

Mundamalla House picture taken as evidence almost decade after raid

Police have seized a mysterious coloured print with links to a near-decade-old Angus burglary.

Retired lecturer and family tree researcher Stuart Gray bought the print for £20 from a Clydebank charity shop after becoming intrigued by the name Mundamalla House.

He discovered that the house in the coloured print – a former care home and now private residence in Newtyle – had been stripped by thieves in 2011.

Officers arrived at his Clydebank home on Tuesday afternoon to take the piece after he called them to tell them about the find.

He said: “They were perfectly pleasant and seemed very interested in finding out where it had come from.”

There was only a problem when he asked the two officers for a receipt.

“They were just about to walk out of the door when I said I didn’t have any record of what had happened.

“I asked for a receipt and they said they didn’t give out receipts for stolen property.”

Mr Gray had initially assumed the print of the house had links to Australia, but after writing to friends in the country, he found that was not the case.

Thieves raided former retirement home Mundamalla House on Coupar Angus Road, Newtyle, in March 2011.

The home had shut, with the building on the market for offers over £895,000, when thieves made what is thought to have been a number of visits and stole a significant amount of property.

Full details of the items taken were not released at the time but a large number of fixtures and fittings was said to be among the haul.

Mr Gray said: “I certainly wish the police well in tracking down the thieves, but it is going to be difficult after nine years.

“The charity shop where I bought it have said there is no record of where it came from.”

In 2013 Angus Council passed an application to turn the former care home back into a private family home.

The owners of the house were trying to get in touch with Mr Gray when police intervened to take possession of the print.

A police spokeswoman said: “The print has been taken and inquiries are ongoing.”

Picture: Jamie Williamson. Stuart Gray found a print of Mundamalla House, which was burgled in 2011.