A mum has issued a message to a thief who swiped her £49k Range Rover as she slept. Learner driver Claire Francis' 'hard working' husband had bought her the car as a present when she turned 41 in March.
And she says she has been left devastated after the motor, which also had a very precious sentimental item inside, vanished from her driveway.
Claire had fallen asleep in the front room of her home in Stockton-on-Tess in the North East with her daughter, 15, and her daughter's friend after watching a late-night showing of Mrs. Brown's Boys.
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When she woke up the next day, she was left horrified after looking onto her drive to find her car had gone. "My daughter's best friend came and stayed with us on Saturday night, which she does quite often. The way our house is laid out - it is all open plan but the front room isn't" she told Teesside Live.
"We were watching Mrs. Brown's Boys on the TV so I said to my daughter go and get your quilts from upstairs you get cosy on there and I'll get cosy on the other sofa. We fell asleep but I woke up at about 11.50pm. I looked out the window and everything was fine."
During the evening, Claire asked her daughter's friend to open the front room window, which remained open all night. "The three of us had fallen asleep in the front room" she continued. "Our car may as well be parked in the front room, that's how close they are to the house.
"You look out of our front room window you can just see the car, literally inches away from the front room window. The windows were open, the blinds were open, all of our outside lights were on, the TV is on still and it has been on all night because I switched it off in the morning. They walked up the road and just helped themselves to my car and just drove off."
Claire, who is still learning to drive but is insured on the car, believes the thief may have cloned her car keys - as she still has hold of her set. She also said that the person who did it may have "looked in the window at us asleep" - describing that on its own as "alarming."
Despite the family's dog sleeping in the front room with them, he did not bark when the car, which has a number plate of MY20 HON, was taken. "I don't know how the hell they have done it - it must have been really quick. With the window being open, if he had heard the door of our car shut, he would have been up barking and he didn't. It's very odd," she said.
Describing the moment she found out the car was gone, Claire, who has reported the incident to Cleveland Police, said: "I woke up this morning and my husband came downstairs he has gone out to work and went: 'Where is your car?' I went: 'Outside!' and he went: 'It isn't.' So I jumped up off the sofa and my car was gone.
"You just think - how dare whoever you are - how dare you walk onto people's property and just helped themselves to their goods. My husband has worked hard for what he has got. He is a hard-working businessman."
Not only this but Claire's sentimental pearl rosary beads were also in the vehicle, which featured a precious photograph of her, her daughter, and her mother. Her mother sadly passed away more than two years ago.
There was also a £2.5k handbag in the boot of the car - and a handful of loose change. Cleveland Police have been contacted for further information.
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