Home raided as family rush to hospital
Mum Tina Powell said after the night time raid in Upton: "They must have seen us go away in the ambulance and decided our place was empty and fair game.
"It's beyond being sick that someone should take advantage of our distress to help themselves during such an obviously traumatic time."
While 15-year-old daughter Jodie was receiving emergency treatment for serious breathing difficulties, the intruders helped themselves to possessions worth more than £4,000.
The burglars even attacked one of the family's barking dogs which was silenced with a suspected kick.
Tina said: "Our Staffordshire bull terrier Brandy must have been hit very badly because she was in some discomfort when we returned from Torbay Hospital with Jodie a few hours later. Our other staffy, Barclay, was upstairs on our daughter's bed quivering like a leaf."
Tuesday's sequence of events at the family home in Hill Park Road started at about 8.30pm when the ambulance arrived to take Jodie and her mum to Torbay Hospital's casualty department, quickly followed by husband Terry and oldest daughter Wendy, 17.
"These people knew one of our children was badly ill and still did us.
"It's so low. Words just fail me," blasted Tina, who said Jodie suffered from cystic hygroma, a condition which affects her breathing when growths in her throat periodically flare up.
Det Sgt Andy James, of Torbay Police burglary squad, said: "This was a critical and extremely stressful time for the family.
"So for them to come home after all they had gone through and then find their home ransacked was very much a double blow."
He appealed for information from anyone who might know the culprits or who saw anything suspicious on Tuesday night in the area.
The offenders caused £600 damage breaking into the house after using tools stolen from a garden shed to force open rear patio doors and a cat-flap. Once inside, they bagged a haul of valuables which included three gold sovereign rings, a white Sony Vivo laptop, two white Apple iPods, a pair of white Apple headphones, a black Fuji digital camera, a brown leather briefcase, a silver Hewlett Packard laptop and a PSP in a case.
"Jodie is fine now, but it was a very bad attack which she had at the time.
"We could not believe it when we got back home and found we had been burgled," said Tina, who added that their home security system is being renewed with the installation of CCTV cameras.
Anyone with information about the break-in can ring DS James on 01803 841589.
