Burglars take precious war medals

A PLASMA television, a stereo, three digital cameras, a DVD player and a Playstation: They were just things. But Graeme Bright's war medals were very dear and precious to him.
The Vietnam veteran is still feeling the impact of having his medals stolen in a burglary at his Wanganui home last Friday evening.
"I kept my medals safely tucked away in a drawer in my bedroom. At first I couldn't believe they had gone. I searched that drawer again and again after the burglary," Mr Bright said yesterday. Last Friday night, burglars jemmied their way into the Brights' home through a locked side window beside a high fence.
The couple and a friend had gone out, on a spur-of-the-moment decision, to dinner, and were away less than two hours, Mr Bright said.
He's convinced they disturbed the burglars when they returned and drove up the driveway.
"When we walked inside, every drawer and cupboard had been pulled open. The television, DVD player, play station had been cleaned out. But they must have left in a real hurry because they left a crow bar lying on the living room floor. They even took the washing basket from the laundry basket to load the stuff in."
Mr Bright said he feels certain the burglars are probably teenagers joining gangs and being sent out to steal as their gang initiation.
"There's just so many burglaries in Wanganui at the moment. Our house was completely locked up when we went out.
"At first we couldn't see how they had got in, because they had obviously pulled the window closed after they had jumped out so you wouldn't have noticed at first."
Even though he was surprised his neighbours didn't see anything, Mr Bright reckons it was because it was early in the evening, a time when most people are watching TV, cooking dinner and doing all those things you do when you get home from work.
"Last Friday we had decided we'd had a long hard week and we'd treat ourselves out to dinner. We're usually home at that time."
But if they hadn't returned when they did that night the burglars would have probably noticed a brand new home entertainment system still packed in its box in a bedroom and taken that as well, Mr Bright said.
But it's the four Vietnam war medals from 1969 and his special-issue 40-year medal presented by Prime Minister Helen Clark to all veterans and peacekeepers last year.
"The set of miniatures I'd had made were taken as well," he said.
A former New Zealand Army gunner, Mr Bright said it just made him furious every time he thought about the burglary.
"I just get so angry. Those medals were precious. They meant a lot to me, as they would to any war veteran. I would really like them back."
"The impact of having your home broken into is horrible."