Gosport sign language interpreter and family 'devastated' after childhood Christmas stocking full of presents stolen from car

Linzi Weatherson had gone to see her parents and extended family – visiting from America – for a festive meal. While they were in their house in Anglesey Road, near Brodrick Avenue, the 33-year-old’s car was broken into.

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While she was putting items in the front seat of the car, she noticed the back window of the car had been ‘smashed’ and the stocking was taken. The sign language interpreter told The News: ‘There was glass on the floor outside and on the seat inside, and I thought ‘oh no’.

‘Not everything had been taken from inside the car, but everything behind the passenger seat was. I tried to hide it under a jumper behind the passenger seat, but I think someone, an opportunist, saw it, broke in and took it.

‘It was rather devastating. All my Christmas stuff was in that stocking.’ Ms Weatherson, of Gosport, added she was not concerned about the items, but the stocking itself due to its ‘sentimental value’.

‘It was the same one I had when I was a child,’ she said, ‘It was so devastating and the worst part was we were all in the house when it happened, and no one heard the car alarm go off.’ Ms Weatherson said she reported it to the police straight away, on December 27 at roughly 9.14pm.

She said they have had no luck so far. Ms Weatherson said her parents had a Ring doorbell, but the footage was obstructed by bad weather and surrounding Christmas lights.

Few of the surrounding houses had video doorbells, and the footage they have only shows the car hazard lights going off and . Ms Weatherson said everyone is ‘physically ok’ but emotionally hurt by the theft.

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‘You want to protect each other, and for someone to take advantage like that, it makes you feel vulnerable. I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I certainly won’t make the same mistake again. I hope more people get video doorbells after this.

‘If more people had them, there would be more chance of catching perpetrators.’ A police spokeswoman said anyone who saw anything suspicious, or has video footage between 5pm and 9pm, should call 101 quoting 44220518818.