I WOULD like to say a big thank you to the burglars who broke into my parents’ home in Machen.

Thank you for giving my elderly parents yet another challenge to overcome. Fighting cancer, heart attacks and a recent bereavement was obviously not enough for them to deal with, so you decided to break into their home, ransack it and take the only mementos they had of any value.

It is not so much the cash value of the jewellery that you stole, but the sentimental value that those objects had.

Those objects were all irreplaceable in our eyes.

I don’t expect you considered the hours of work my parents and grandparents endured in order to save up for those pieces of jewellery and I don’t expect you looked at the precious photos inside the locket did you?

We will have to live with just the memories now because you took what doesn’t belong to you. In time, I may be able to forgive you for stealing what does not belong to you, but I will never forgive you for the trauma you caused.

Not only have you destroyed my parents’ peace of mind in their senior years, but you have also left my sons worried about their grandparents’ safety.

Perhaps you will be able to buy my parents a Get Well Soon card after your burglary – a card from your ill gotten gains.

After all, you know where to deliver it, don’t you! Rather than breaking down the door this time though, maybe you could use the letterbox instead?

A Ackland, Pontywaun