$10k jewel raid crushes pair

by Daniel Simmons-Ritchie

A traumatised Carterton couple well known for opening their home to Christmas revellers say they don't know if they can face doing so this year after thieves raided their home on Saturday, stealing hundreds of jewellery items worth over $10,000.
Marilyn Bulford has lost 210 pieces of jewellery - ranging from ordinary clip-on earrings to her $4000 blue sapphire engagement ring - and had her bedroom torn apart by the crooks, who left two machetes on the bed.
The thieves also stole A$1000 ($1310) in cash she was saving for her nieces and nephews, a camera, an iPod, a Toshiba laptop, and an airline ticket to the United States.
Mrs Bulford and her teacher husband Adrian had been at an intermediate school reunion in Stokes Valley when they returned home at midnight and believe they disturbed the thieves, who had broken into the house through a ranchslider.
"I just screamed. I wish I had bloody turned around and run out on to the street and after them. I would have killed the buggers," a distressed Mrs Bulford said.
In the morning they discovered a trail of gold rings and earrings that had been dropped by the fleeing thieves in their garden, down the street and beside the train tracks.
About 20 pieces of jewellery have since been recovered, including a cross picked up by a child on Belvedere Rd.
The thieves left two machetes taken from the Bulfords' garage in their bedroom for reasons the couple don't understand and used fly spray from the kitchen to subdue the couple's three dogs.
"They obviously haven't got a conscience. I feel sorry for them in a way for as far as I'm concerned they will burn in hell. God knows they did it and they have to live with that. I'm just grateful they didn't kill our dogs because I love them like my babies."
Mrs Bulford said many of the items were irreplaceable, like her blue sapphire engagement ring with an eight-diamond cluster setting, which she was given by her husband in 1975 and is now likely worth about $4000 in today's value.
She was grateful the thieves had not taken any of the Christmas decorations they had begun to stock up on for the annual Christmas lights competition.
She said it was a heartbreaking thing to happen after the couple let people into their home every year. "We were going to start setting up for Christmas next week but we have got to wonder whether you want people coming through the house."
Much of the jewellery taken had been bought on recent trips to the US, the Pacific Islands and Australia, which the couple had decided to take before Mr Bulford's health deteriorated further following a series of heart problems and kidney complications.
Mr Bulford said he had felt numb after he saw the scene.
He said most of the things he wanted to say to the burglars would be too offensive to print.
"Where is their conscience? What right do they believe they have? Do they understand what they take away from people? The memories and treasures that come from your aunts and uncles, that we would hand on to our children? They have taken those memories away, at least the tangible aspects."
Wairarapa police say they have been dealing with nearly twice the usual number of burglaries in the past few months.