By KELLY BLANCHARD in Rotorua
Tamara Lear can't remember her father. He died in an horrific car crash when she was a baby.
Now the last link she had with him has been snatched by burglars who tore through her family's home this week.
A small opal
with a tiny gold heart on the top that he gave her just before she turned one, and her mother's gold wedding ring, which has an engraved pattern on the outside, were stolen.
The pieces of jewellery are inexpensive, but priceless to Tamara.
Thieves broke into the family's Turner Rd home at Hamurana, near Rotorua, on Tuesday some time between 8am and 5pm.
Tamara, a Year 10 student at Rotorua Girls' High School, and her mother, Tania Lear, returned home to find their rear ranchslider open.
Clothes from the bedrooms were strewn across the rooms and several items were missing. More than $10,000 worth of property was taken, mainly clothes, jewellery and Christmas presents.
But it is the two pieces of small jewellery the family want back. They are so desperate to have them returned, they are appealing through the Daily Post for the thieves to either anonymously take the jewellery to the newspaper or post it to the Daily Post.
Tania met Tamara's father in England and married him 16 years ago. After Tamara was born, Antony went to France where he started worked as a tiler helping to build Euro Disney. On his way to work on July 24, 1991, he was killed when his van collided with a motorcycle.
Tania and Tamara moved back to New Zealand. They now live at Hamurana with Tania's new partner, Chris de Groot, and his two children, Aimee and Henry.
Tamara burst into tears when talking about the burglary.
She said not only had she lost the last link to her father but it had left her feeling unsafe in her own home.
Tania said the jewellery would not mean anything to anyone else, "but they mean everything to Tamara".
Tania said Aimee and Tamara were hard-working children who had their own jobs and paid for their own clothes.
"Who do these burglars think they are? I know burglaries happen all the time but I just can't get over the cheek of it, someone coming into your home and taking everything.
"These people don't have jobs, they just come in and take other people's stuff."
Tania hoped to appeal to the consciences of the burglars or anyone who knew who broke into their home.
"A child might be given the opal or wedding ring.
"If a kid knows what mum or dad has been up to, they might well tell them they've got to return it."
* The jewellery can be handed anonymously to police, or the Daily Post office - attn Kelly Blanchard.
By KELLY BLANCHARD in Rotorua
Tamara Lear can't remember her father. He died in an horrific car crash when she was a baby.
Now the last link she had with him has been snatched by burglars who tore through her family's home this week.
A small opal
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