Thieves ransack elderly Sheffield man's home while he is in hospital
The 86-year-old, who has four grandchildren and two great grandchildren, was receiving hospital care when his home in Edgewell Rise, Birley Edge, was raided.
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Hide AdThe callous thief or gang responsible broke in through the OAP's conservatory and smashed a glass door to gain entry to the house.
Every drawer and cupboard in every room apart from the bathroom was searched, with the retired plumber's belongings left strewn across the floor.
Furniture was upturned and even the food kept in his freezer was stolen.
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Hide AdA television, two cameras and cash were among the other items taken during the raid.
The OAP's 57-year-old daughter-in-law, whose own home was on Halifax Road, Grenoside, was broken into in August, said the family is '˜devastated' at the burglary.
'It is not so much what was taken and we won't know everything until my father-in-law leaves hospital, but it is the mess they have left, the upset this has caused and the absolute disregard they had for the personal belongings of someone who worked all his life,' she said.
'The shock of this could have been enough to have killed him.'
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Hide AdShe said the pensioner, who has carers visit him four times a day, has to move into a home for the next two weeks until repairs are carried out.
His daughter-in-law said she fears the pensioner, who has Parkinson's disease, may not want to return to the family home.
'We do not want this to drive him out of the home he has lived in for over 50 years,' she said.
'It is absolutely diabolical that someone could do this in what is obviously an elderly person's home. It even has a hospital bed downstairs.
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Hide Ad'Whether they knew he was in hospital, we don't know, but it is disgusting.
'We are devastated at what has happened. We are honest people, we go out to work to provide for our family and to have holidays and nice things and then you get someone you do not know who just thinks they can take what is not theirs.'
Anyone with information should call South Yorkshire Police on 101.
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