A COUPLE has been the victim of a “horrible” burglary in which thieves stole a statue which is a commemoration to their son who died aged just 18.

Criminals snuck into the garden of Steve and Carol Wellington’s Colehill home before managing to dislodge the bronze garden feature that had sat next to a pond for 15 years.

The burglary involved the culprits scaling a front wall, leaping over a drainage ditch and another fence to access the property.

The statue, which portrays of a nymph-like boy fishing, was gifted to the couple after their son Curtis died suddenly in 2005.

Mr Wellington, who works for Poole-based Alpha Electronics, said: “This is just horrible. I don’t want it to happen to anyone else. It might be something that is not so treasured but for me it is more of a treasure than it would be to anyone else.

“It is a lasting legacy of our long-departed son.”

He added: “It is so frustrating that these sods have done something like this. For my wife it is extremely upsetting.

“We lost our son when he was 18. One of his friends parents bought us this statue which is four-foot tall and cast bronze in a burgundy green of a fishing boy because my lad was keen on fishing.

“It has stood by our pond for 15 years.

“My wife went out to the store and when she came back she said ‘someone has taken the statue’.”

Mr Wellington said CCTV footage of the incident, which took place shortly after 11.30pm on Tuesday, December 22, showed the burglars come in over the front wall, across a piece of land before scaling a drainage ditch and a fence.

“We saw them on the cameras and they were heavily covered up. They had hoodies on and you could see the lights of the car parked outside in the lane,” added Mr Wellington, who returned home from hospital after a hip operation on the day of the crime.

“They were obviously well prepared. People in the surrounding area need to be aware that these scrouts are out there and looking to steal stuff.”

The statue holds no monetary value to the family as it given to them by the parents of one of Curtis’s friends but its sentimental value is immeasurable, Mr Wellington said.

A Dorset Police spokeswoman said: “We were called at 12.08pm on Wednesday, December 23, to reports of the theft of a bronze statue from the garden of an address in Lonnen Road in Colehill.

“It is reported the theft occurred at around 11.30pm on Tuesday, December 22.

“An investigation is underway.”