I can’t believe it – my prized medal is safe, says Telford grandmother
A grandmother says she is relieved after finding a medal she believed was stolen in a burglary.
Jewellery has been stolen from Jadwiga Matecha’s house in Trench, Telford.
The grandmother 83-year-old returned from a day spent at a memorial service in Cannock to find broken glass strewn around her home, where thieves had smashed windows to get in.
Jadwiga says all her gold and jewellery has been stolen, including a sentimental watch which was given to her by her husband Jozef for their 25th wedding anniversary.
But she believed her treasured Siberian Cross medal had been stolen as well – but found it dropped on the floor nearby where it is kept.
She said: “I came home at about 4.35pm on Sunday.
“I had been to mass with my friend, then we went straight to a memorial service in Cannock and then to refreshments in Wolverhampton.
“As I opened my gate I saw all this broken glass, at first I thought a bird might have flown into the glass, but when I went into my kitchen and saw all the glass I know.
“All the drawers were open, all my statements from the bank were gone, upstairs they had gone through all the bedrooms.
“I did not know what I was going to do, so I called my daughter and she contacted the police. Then they came.
“I looked and all my gold was gone.”
Jadwiga believes she has lost, along with the watch, a number of bracelets, earrings and some gold sovereigns.
In February, Jadwiga was presented with the Siberian Cross, which the Polish government hands out to honour more than one million Polish civilians sent to Russia by Stalin after 1939.
Despite initially thinking that the award had been stolen, she found it later and believes the thieves either dropped it when they were disturbed or discarded it believing it was not of any value.
She said: “I looked in the drawer where it is kept and could only find the certificate.
“But later in the evening I found my daughter had found it. They probably dropped it on the way or thought it was not worth it.”
Jadwiga and her family are now appealing for any information which may help her to have her jewellery, particularly the watch which is of sentimental value, returned to her.
Anybody who has any information on the witnessed the burglary should contact West Mercia Police on 101.
