DEVASTATED: Sharon McKenzie holds the only family photos she has left after her home was broken into last week. The intruders grabbed her laptop, and the hard drive with the back-up images.PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA
Treasured family photos on computer taken during raid on home
A Masterton woman and her family have been left heartbroken and scared after their home was burgled, thieves taking property worth about $25,000.
Sharon McKenzie "felt sick to her stomach" when her 13-year-old son called her at work on Wednesday afternoon, distraught at the scene he had found at their
York St address.
"He had come home from school to find the back door kicked in, my car gone, and a lot of stuff missing," she said.
"To hear your boy crying on the phone because he's come home to someone being in your home, it's pretty scary."
She had immediately called 111. Police had arrived later and took fingerprints at the property but found no leads.
"You live in a good neighbourhood with good people so you don't think anything like that is ever going to happen to you."
The intruders had loaded several items into Miss McKenzie's car, including two laptops, a video game console, a variety of specialised tools and a flat-screen TV.
Although the items were insured it was not the things that worried Miss McKenzie.
"Stuff can be replaced. All I really want is the photos that are on the laptop. I don't care about anything else," she said.
The intruders also took the hard drive Miss McKenzie used to store backups of the family photos, so she was desperate to get them back .
"Even if they put them on to a USB pendrive and stick it in the letterbox or take it to the police station.
"I have no hard copies apart from the couple on the wall.
"My daughter is 3 now and that picture is of her as a newborn."
Since the incident she had sent her two children to stay with her parents while she tried to get everything "back to normal".
Miss McKenzie has had to take time off work since the break-in to mind her property while the door is repaired.
She said she had heard other properties in the area had been targeted, although not on the same day as her home.
If you see Miss McKenzie's silver 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer registration ABY938 or have any information about her burglary call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or Masterton police on 370 0378.
