England captain Ben Stokes says a masked gang burgled his house – when his wife and kids were home – while he was away in Pakistan for the recent Test series.
The 33-year-old said none of his family were physically harmed but the incident affected them emotionally and that a number of sentimental items were stolen.
Stokes shared photos of the stolen items, which included the MBE medal he was given in 2020.
“On the evening of Thursday 17th October a number of masked people burgled my home in the Castle Eden area in the North East”, he said on Instagram.
“They escaped with jewellery, other valuables and a good deal of personal items. Many of those items have real sentimental value for me and my family. They are irreplaceable.
“By far the worst thing about this crime is that it was carried out while my wife and two 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.”
View this post on Instagram
Stokes said the incident occured during the evening of October 17 from his home in the Castle Eden area of Country Durham.
England were beaten by Pakistan in the second Test the next day, with Stokes dismissed for 37.
He was in Pakistan until the conclusion of last week’s third Test, which England lost by nine wickets to and consign them to a 2-1 defeat in the series.
“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,” added Stokes.
“Although we have lost cherished possessions, to be clear, my sole motivation in sharing these photographs is not the recovery of material items. It is to catch the people who did this.
“They escaped with jewellery, other valuables and a good deal of personal items. 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.”
