Couple left terrified as burglars ransack home
Cards, cash and mobile stolen
A couple have been left terrified after burglars ransacked their home stealing credit cards, cash and irreplaceable pictures stored on a mobile phone.
Heart attack victim David Nevett, 72, was recovering from a triple heart bypass when he awoke at 6am to find burglars had struck at the home he shares with his 60-year-old wife Penny in Jubilee Road, Portchester.
Mr Nevett, who runs a cleaning business, had suffered a series of heart attacks two weeks before and was recuperating at home following the surgery at Southampton General Hospital when he discovered his house had been raided.
Upset Mr Nevett said: ‘I got up at about six in the morning and found the back door ajar and all the cupboards open.
‘They had taken two mobile phones, and my wife’s bag with about £200 cash in it.
‘The phones had about 70 photos of our grandkids and holidays on them.
‘I was very scared — it makes you feel like you go to bed at night and you’re not safe in your own home.’
Police are currently investigating two incidents — the raid at the Nevett home on May 18 and a nearby shed break-in on the same day.
CCTV from a separate incident in Portchester shows a man at 1am on May 18.
The thieves also took a wallet containing Mr Nevett’s credit cards, which they tried to use to buy £300 worth of jewellery from a shop in Kent.
Text messages have been sent from one of the phones after the breakin, the network operator confirmed, but the police told Mr Nevett it would ‘cost too much’ to investigate.
Mr Nevett said burglars took advantage of the ‘pitch black’ conditions after street lights were shut off by Hampshire County Council.
Street lighting has been turned off from 1am to 4am as a cost-cutting measure since April 1.
Police are investigating the break-in, as well as the theft of a high-end bicycle from a shed at around the same time.
A spokesman for the police said: ‘A shed in Jubilee Road was broken into and a pushbike worth approximately £1,300 was stolen.’
Call police on 101 quoting 44190171078 for the bike theft and 44190170997 for the burglary.