Second blow for tragic daughter

Nov 3 2007 by Jule Wilson, The Journal

A WOMAN who lost her mother to cancer this year has turned detective in an attempt to find some of her precious belongings.

Key items of Patricia Harrison’s jewellery collection, which she inherited after her mother Margaret Good, 73, lost her battle with lung cancer in January, went missing from her home in Cramlington, Northumberland earlier this year.

Heartbroken Patricia explained: “I’m kicking myself because I stupidly left my bedroom window slightly ajar. I thought nothing of it because my husband Jimmy is a school caretaker and is therefore in and out all day, and we also have a Border collie called Pip, and he barks all the time.”

Some time on September 26 or September 27, Patricia, 42, of Ilford Avenue, thinks an opportunist thief must have spotted the jewellery box on her bedside table and taken their chance.

She said: “I realised that the items had gone missing on September 27, and I cried all weekend. It just crippled me.

“Some of the pieces are very sentimental, things that my dad gave her, for example, and gifts from myself.”

The most precious pieces include a gold watch bought for her mother on the day Patricia was born and a distinctive blue hand-made glass and 14-carat gold Turkish eye stone, which was the last thing Patricia gave her mum.

Patricia said: “I don’t care about prosecuting anyone and I don’t care if I never see my own jewellery again, but if I can just get those two items back, it would be overwhelming. I can’t tell you how much it would mean.”

As well as offering a £1,000 reward for the jewellery, Patricia has been in regular contact with jewellers and pawnbrokers across the region in an effort to retrieve her belongings.

She said: “I am just desperate, and I won’t stop looking. I just want my mum’s things back.”

A spokesman for Northumbria Police also confirmed they were investigating the incident.

If you can help, call Northumbria Police on 08456 043043, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.