Ben Stokes' County Durham home burgled by masked gang as wife and two children were inside
by Kathryn Riddell, Matthew Cooper · ChronicleLiveEngland cricket captain Ben Stokes has revealed his County Durham home was burgled by a gang of masked intruders while his wife and two children were inside.
The all-rounder, who was away leading England in their Test tour of Pakistan at the time, said his family escaped "any physical harm" but the incident had taken a toll on their "impact on their emotional and mental state".
Among the stolen items were Stokes' OBE for services to cricket and a specially engraved ring with the England logo. In a heartfelt plea on social media, Stokes wrote: "On the evening of Thursday 17th October a number of masked people burgled my home in the Castle Eden area in the North East. They escaped with jewellery, other valuables and a good deal of personal items."
He added: "Many of those items have real sentimental value for me and my family. They are irreplaceable. This is an appeal for any help in finding these people who carried out this act. By far the worst thing about this crime is that it was carried out whilst my wife and 2 young children were in the house.
"Thankfully, none of my family came to any physical harm. Understandably, however, the experience has had an impact on their emotional and mental state. All we can think about is how much worse this situation could have been.
"I am releasing photographs of some of the stolen items - which I hope may be easily identified - in the hope that we can find the people who are responsible for this. Although we have lost cherished possessions, to be clear, my sole motivation in sharing these photographs is not the recovery of material items.", reports the Mirror.
"It is to catch the people who did this. Please come forward and contact Durham Constabulary on 101 quoting crime reference CRI00575927 if you think that you have any relevant information. Finally, I want to say thank you to the police service.
"Both now and whilst I was away in Pakistan, their support for my family has been outstanding. They continue to work incredibly hard in trying to find these people."
Join our County Durham WhatsApp community
Join our County Durham WhatsApp community for all the latest news County Durham news sent direct to your phone.
To join you need to have WhatsApp on your device. All you need to do is choose which community you want to join, click on the link and press 'join community'.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the ChronicleLive team.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
If you’re curious, you can read our privacy notice.