Theft of photos a blow to grieving family

William Thode

A family struggling to come to terms with the sudden death of a son at boarding school have now been robbed of all of his childhood photos.

Yesterday, thieves broke into the family home of King's College boy William Richard Thode, 15, who died in his sleep last week.

Thousands of dollars worth of items were taken from the Remuera house, including an Apple Mac laptop which had their photos stored on it.

William's uncle Peter Motion said the family were devastated.

They still had a photo montage of William that was played at his funeral on Monday, but all other pictures of him growing up with brothers Oliver, 13, and Sam, 11, were lost.

Mr Motion pleaded with the thieves to drop the laptop or a memory stick of the photos off at a police station or into the Herald anonymously.

William was buried on Tuesday. "In 24 hours, for this to happen is pretty horrific for the family," Mr Motion said.

He said neighbours saw teenagers in hoodies loading a television into a white Subaru station wagon at about 3pm yesterday. They yelled at the teenagers and tried to follow them, but lost sight of the car.

Two computers and electronic devices such as iPhones and a TV were taken, worth in excess of $10,000. The family were still checking if anything else had been taken.

Anyone with information on the burglary is urged to contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 0800-555-111.