A FAMILY has been left devastated after a “brazen” burglar stole £10,000 worth of their property along with precious sentimental items.

Tristan Hockley smashed a window to get into the semi-detached house in Woodstock Road, Oxford, during the daytime raid. Inside he stole items including a flat screen television, computers, and clothing.

But father-of-two Andrew Webb said the items he missed most were family video tapes of his children growing up.

The 44-year-old said: “I had only been away for an hour. Our neighbours realised something was up when they saw a chap walking down the street with our flat screen TV.

“He took pretty much every electrical appliance in the house – television, video, amplifier, laptops. The sad thing is he took an older video camera which is utterly worthless and all the tapes. We have now lost all these memories of the children.

“If I could get anything back that’s the one thing I would want. If anyone has got them I would love to have them returned.

“Burglars don’t think, they are more interested in what they can get and what they can pass it on for.”

Mr Webb is married to Sue, 44, and they have a 13-year-old son and 11-year-old dughter.

The 15 stolen films featured family holidays, with his children skiing, riding bikes, and camping.

Police said Hockley, of no fixed address, was caught after Mr Webb’s neighbour took a photograph of him leaving the Webb’s home.

The thief was jailed for 40 months at Oxford Crown Court following the burglary on September 3.

Mr Webb added: “What is extraordinary was how brazen this chap was to break a window at the front of the house in the middle of the day.

“It just shows how desperate he was.

“He is clearly a serial burglar criminal. I don’t have much confidence he won’t reoffend again.”

Mr Webb, a retail consultant, has since has a burglar alarm fitted to his home. “We had been meaning to get one and never quite got round to it,” he added.

Hockley, 36, also broke into a house in Littlemore Road, Oxford, on September 5. He admitted the two burglaries and asked for two other burglaries and four thefts to be taken into account.

Pc David Kuttner of the Oxford Burglary Team said: “Hockley has greatly affected and inconvenienced the lives of his victims.

“I hope that this sentence both reflects the seriousness of the offences and gives him the opportunity to think about what he has done and turn his life around.”

  • There were 360 domestic burglaries across Oxford between April 1 and October 31 this year, compared to 433 for the same period last year and 369 in 2010.
  • If anyone knows there whereabouts of Mr Webb’s family videos, please contact reporter Ben Wilkinson via email or by phone on 01865 425427. Alternatively call police on 101.