A FAMILY had their Christmas ruined after burgulars raided their home when they were away on holiday.

Louise Church, 40, and Darren O’Sullivan, 42, who have lived in their Faringdon home for 12 years, returned from a festive break on Friday.

After coming home from a trip to Center Parcs with their two children Egan, seven, and two-year-old Connie, they found their home had been broken into.

Thieves had forced open the kitchen window and stole a television, laptop, two bicycles and power tools.

Our top stories

Miss Church said: “My son is very shaken by it all.

“He thinks they are going to come back and recognise him.

“He has to sleep with us at night at the moment.”

She added: “The stress of everything, with us coming home and finding it all, it’s definitely ruined Christmas.

“We went to Center Parcs for a nice holiday and we haven’t even talked about it since this happened.”

The family had been away for some post-Christmas relaxtion, having been away from Monday, December 29 until Friday.

Miss Church, a childminder, said: “When we returned they’d got in a rear window and taken quite a lot of stuff. They’d been all through the house and cleaned us out.

“They took two very expensive bikes, a mountain bike worth £3,500 and a racing bike worth £2,500.

“Our 42-inch flat-screen television was gone, a laptop and tools that my partner uses in his job as a bricklayer.

“He has to buy new tools now, it’s going to impact on his work.”

None of the family’s neighbours in Westland Road saw the break-in, which police said took place between December 30 and 31.

Miss Church said: “We’ve never had anything like this before. Nobody saw anything.

“We live in quite a nice street with grass frontages and large rear gardens. There are lots of people who live here and we all know each other. It was a window at the back of the house and they rammed it and got in. It wasn’t smashed, it was forced at the latch.

“Once they were in they took the goods out of the house through the French doors. The police couldn’t find any fingerprints, just glove marks.”

She said: “We had somebody coming in and feeding the chickens in the back garden so the side gate to the garden was unlocked.

“They noticed a bin had been pushed over and they assumed it was just because of the wind, but it was so someone could stand on it and look through our garage window.

“We thought we were being safety conscious by keeping the house all locked up and not giving anyone the key, but it didn’t seem to matter.”

  • Anyone with information should call police on 101 or the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555111

 

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.