War medals stolen in callous robbery
A PACIFIC Pines family is begging callous thieves to have a conscience and return a collection of World War II medals stolen from their home.
The medals, along with family heirlooms and passports, were inside a metal safe that was grabbed as part of a destructive break-in at Pacific Pines about 9am on Thursday.
Kelly Stevenson returned home from running errands with her two young sons, aged four and six, to find the gates and garage wide open and the rear windows of the home smashed.
“Everything was pulled out of cupboards and thrown everywhere,” she said. “I was dry-retching waiting for the police to show up. Someone coming into our house where there’s two young kids — it makes you feel violated.”
The New Zealand World War II service medals had been presented to the boys’ great-grandfathers, one a prisoner of war, and were kept inside the safe, which had not been bolted down.
“We’re kicking ourselves now of course,” Mrs Stevenson said.
Mrs Stevenson’s own army service medal, an engraved coin-shaped medal in a wooden box, was also in the safe, along with her late mother’s wedding rings. Of the three-ring set, the engagement and eternity rings were taken.
“You grow up as a little girl admiring them and she always said I would have the rings when she was gone. It’s pretty horrible,” she said.
Laptops, a PC, television and other electrical goods were also taken, but Mrs Stevenson said she was most concerned about the irreplaceable family heirlooms.
“I don’t care about the TV or anything like that, they can have it, I just want the medals and the rings,” she said.
She pleaded with the thieves to do the right thing and drop the goods back at the house. The family is scouring second-hand shops across the southeast, in the hope the goods may turn up.
So far one of the stolen computers has been sending alerts via its GPS from the Toowoomba area.