NEW DELHI: England cricket captain Ben Stokes claims that while he was away in Pakistan, masked robbers broke into his house and took valuables while his family was inside.
Stokes said on Wednesday that the burglary occurred at his northeast England house in Castle Eden on October 17.
His Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal, which was awarded on behalf of the nation, was one of the objects stolen.
“By far the worst thing about this crime is that it was carried out whilst my wife and 2 young children were in the house. Thankfully, none of my family came to any physical harm,” he wrote on X. “Understandably, however, the experience has had an impact on their emotional and mental state. All we can think about is how much worse this situation could have been.”
The thieves took jewelry and “other valuables and a good deal of personal items. Many of those items have real sentimental value for me and my family. They are irreplaceable.”
In an effort to assist the police in apprehending the burglars, Stokes claimed he made the news public. He shared pictures of a few of the pilfered goods.
“Although we have lost cherished possessions, to be clear, my sole motivation in sharing these photographs is not the recovery of material items. It is to catch the people who did this,” he wrote.
Ben Stokes says his home was burgled while he was in Pakistan | Cricket News
Ben Stokes. (Photo by Philip Brown/Popperfoto via Getty Images)