Jewellery with late father’s prints stolen
Irreplaceable jewellery sculpted from a father-of-two’s fingerprints before his death have been stolen from his family’s home.
Christchurch woman Hilary O’Brien-Anderson, whose husband died shortly before Christmas, has been devastated by the burglary.
Darren Anderson died on December 17 but not before his fingerprints were collected and made into two pendants for his sons and a bracelet for his wife.
One pendant and the bracelet were stolen, along with the couple’s engagement and wedding rings, their children’s electronic devices and alcohol from the Spreydon family home late Wednesday afternoon.
‘‘I’m just a bit numb today, I’m still struggling with his death,’’ Hilary said. ‘‘I’m in disbelief that someone would do this because those items, we can’t replace them.
‘‘They’re not worth anything to anybody else . . . It just feels like when you’re down and to be hit again, it’s just horrible.’’
The burglars entered the Lyttelton St home through a bedroom window with a screwdriver while Finn, 7, and his mother were at the movies. His brother Conn, 9, was at a summer camp.
She said the burglars emptied the children’s piggy banks, raided the kitchen and master bedroom, emptying drawers of her late husband’s clothes which had not been touched since his death.
‘‘It was really hard to see,’’ she said.
Also stolen was a bottle of Irish Tullamore Dew whiskey given to Irish-born O’Brien-Anderson by a friend on the day of Darren’s funeral. ‘‘We toasted to my husband with it on the night of his funeral … It was quite a significant bottle of alcohol.’’
The ‘‘weirdest thing’’ about the burglary, she said, was the thieves used a stool to reach the top of the low pantry to take hot chocolate sachets. She said it was likely they were youths.
The family had only returned from a holiday that morning and the thieves emptied Finn’s still-packed suitcase to carry away the stolen items.
‘‘They would’ve been walking up Lyttelton St with a blue suitcase which would’ve looked quite bizarre at that time of day,’’ she said.
‘‘We’re right on the corner . . . we’re very open, not a back section or anything.’’
The family has been burgled multiple times since moving in to the property in 2006, but O’Brien-Anderson said it was a good area with good people.
Darren was first diagnosed with a brain tumour – which later developed into a glioblastoma – in 2004. After years and multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, including immunotherapy treatment in Germany, the cancer eventually took over.
‘‘He battled all the way through but unfortunately at the end the tumour got too aggressive and he succumb to it.
‘‘He’d done really well . . . He was a real fighter.’’
Police encouraged anyone who was in the area at the time or saw anything suspicious to contact them or give information anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.