MEMORIES are all that remain of Lorna Roberts’s late grandmother after cruel thieves raided her Park North home last weekend and deprived her of her family heirlooms.

Lorna, 30, and husband Chris, 33, had returned from a day out with friends and their godson last Saturday (NOV 28) when, in the darkness of 10pm, they saw the smashed front door.

“I turned to tell her we have been broken into and she didn’t believe me, she thought I was joking,” said Chris, an engineer.

They found the front door of their Midhurst Avenue home smashed and the back door wide open as the exit route for what they believe to be at least two burglars.

Among the high-value items taken there is greater sentimental value in the jewellery ecologist Lorna is facing up to life without.

Lorna was holding her grandmother’s hand at the end of September as she passed away and only inherited the rings on the day of her funeral in late October.

She said they were the only possessions she had left to remind her of her cherished relative.

The Roberts feel violated by the whole episode, which turned their house upside down, terrified Mac, the family cat, and deprived them of their valuable games consoles and laptops, one of which has sensitive data from Lorna’s job.

“The entire house was a bombsite,” said Chris.

The property, left by Chris’s late grandmother to the family, no longer feels like their home and Lorna is already resolved to leave at the earliest opportunity.

“Lorna’s been left absolutely devastated by the whole thing. She doesn’t to be there anymore,” said Chris.

“It doesn’t feel like our home anymore.”

Wiltshire Police was called in at the earliest opportunity and has been combing the property for clues, but there seems to be little in the way of leads thus far.

The couple are pleading with the public for information on what might have become of their property and the cherished jewellery which has been in Lorna’s family for decades.

“At first it was shock. There was a whole range of emotions: disappointment, upset, disbelief,” said Chris of the minutes after discovering the break-in.

“It’s still very raw. It took Lorna a lot of days at her parents to be convinced to come back to this house.

“We just don’t want to be here. Lorna wants to move as soon as possible.”

If you have any information, please contact PC 2356 Lisa Kitchin at Swindon police station on 101 or contact her anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.