Heartbroken parents can't buy their four-year-old son his dream birthday present after the theft of £5,000 worth of tools left his self-employed dad without work.
Angela and Murray Pagan, 45 and 37, were sitting with their kids watching Netflix on October 28 when someone broke into Mr Pagan's van, parked outside their Longdale home in Drayton.
The value of power tools stolen was worth £5,000. Police say enquiries are ongoing.
Despite the van being locked, and all of its contents insured, the family's finances have been decimated.
Mr Pagan, a self-employed plumbing and heating engineer, had to cancel his jobs on Friday and Saturday — worth £400 each — and spend everything left in his bank account on new drills just so he could get back to work this week.
Ms Pagan said: "The insurance company has said it could take up to five days just to get in touch about getting his tools replaced.
"His van has been broken into before, in 2018. Ever since then, because it's too heavy to carry the tools into the house every evening and out again every morning, Murray always parks his van with its back to the garage, so nobody can get in.
"This was the one time he didn't because my car was in the way. It was like somebody was watching and waiting for us to trip up.
"I've never seen a grown man reduced to tears the way he was on Thursday. This couldn't have come at a worse time."
Ms Pagan is between jobs, moving from the NHS into the charity sector — and her most recent pay packet took a huge hit after Covid forced her into self-isolation.
And with four kids aged between four and 19 living at home, the couple are now working out how they'll break it to Hunter, due to turn five tomorrow, that the present he wanted for his birthday is no longer an option.
Mr Pagan said: "These thefts always happen round here at this time of year. It's people looking to make a quick buck ahead of Christmas.
"What they don't realise is the impact this has had on our family."
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