HEARTLESS nighttime burglars stole bikes and power tools worth around £13,000 from a young family’s locked garden shed, including their four-year-old son’s mini motorbike Christmas present.

Louise Bent, husband Mike and children Frankie, four, and Nola, eight, were asleep at their Valley Road home in Cinderford in the early hours of Sunday morning when raiders forced open the garage shed’s reinforced door.

“There must have been a few of them with a van because they’ve climbed a seven foot-high fence, broken in and opened the double bolted gates to carry out my husband’s two mountain bikes and power tools, and my little boy’s PW50 bike,” said Crossroads charity worker Louise

“Frankie’s heartbroken and, with my eight-year-old daughter Nola, I’ve now got two terrified kids worried they might come back. You can replace stuff, but kids shouldn’t have to live in fear in their own home. It’s terrible.

“These people are the lowest of the low. How can they go onto someone’s property and break in like this?

“We went to bed around 11.30pm on Saturday and found the garage shed door smashed open around 7am, with the bikes and tools all missing,” added Louise.

“The back garden is surrounded by the fence and they’ve climbed that and then moved all the sensor lights so they don’t get spotted.

“The strange thing was I got up a few times to look at my sister’s young lad who was struggling with his breathing, but none of us heard a thing.

“Our puppy Duggy didn’t even make a noise either. I can’t believe we didn’t hear anything.”

She and her self-employed builder husband believe the raiders probably staked the property out, possibly following Mike home in his van after he had been cycling at a popular riding spot in the Forest.

“The police say these gangs suss properties out first and know where stuff is kept, and we’ve heard of a few cyclists being followed home in their cars and vans after going riding,” added Louise.

“The gang have rip-ped off the framework of the reinforced garage shed door to break in and used big boltcutters to remove the chains from Mike’s black-coloured mountain bikes, which are worth around £6,000 and £3,000 each.

“It’s our livelihood as well and Mike’s lost power drills, a laser level, a stone saw and other tools, including Stihl models In total, they’ve taken up to around £13,000 worth of stuff

“They must have had a van, so if anyone has any CCTV showing one driving through town in the early hours of early Sunday morning, that could be very helpful.

“There have been a lot of similar burglaries around the Forest recently and I feared something like this might happen, but you don’t know how bad it makes you feel until it does.”

A Gloucestershire Police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 7.30am on Sunday 2 February we were informed that a shed at an address in Valley Road, Cinderford had been broken into and two bikes and a selection of tools had been stolen.

“Local enquiries have been made and officers have offered reassurance and crime prevention advice.

“They would like to hear from anyone who witnessed any suspicious activity in Valley Road or has information about the bikes or tools.

“Anyone with information is asked to call Gloucestershire Constabulary on 101 quoting incident 103 of 2 February.”

A Cinderford woman responding to Louise’s bad news on her Facebook page said: “We had someone in our garden Fri night where there are two sheds, cos there’s huge footprints in the mud where they’ve jumped the fence.

“Luckily we have the dog this weekend as she was barking and knew somebody was there and thankfully scared them off.”

Recent crimes reoportoed in the local area include several raids around Blakeney, with five mountain bikes taken from premises in Blakeney Hill Road overnight on Sunday to Monday, December 29 to 30, following two previous high value motorbike and push bike raids at neighbouring properties in the previous two months.

Another push bike was also removed from a nearby parked van the same night the five bikes were taken – thefts which were among a spate of seven break-ins in the area over the festive period, including a £1,000 jewellery raid in Yorkley.

At the end of last October, a £70,000 raid on Court Farm Garage car sales and servicing in Littledean saw specialist tools and another child’s mini motorbike among items taken.

Also at the end of October, £20,000 of six padlocked motorbikes and mountain bikes were stolen from a locked shutter-doored garage in New Road, Blakeney, while burglars struck again at the end of November and took £7,000 worth of tools and bikes from a workshop in Old Street Farm, Nibley.