There's no way to describe the feeling of knowing a stranger has been in your home and rifled through your possessions to take their pick.
Even if you are fortunate enough to have insurance to cover the monetary value of the things taken, no amount of money can replace the sentimental feeling we may associate with them.
One burglary victim has left people in tears by summing up the feeling in a powerful but heartbreaking message left taped to a pole outside their home in a desperate bid to appeal to the perpetrator.
A picture, shared on Quora in response to the question 'what is the saddest picture you've seen on the internet today?', shows the victim appeal only for the return of a memory card inside a camera as it held precious photos which would mean nothing to others.
It reads: 'To the man who was in my house and robbed me. Keep the cash, and my DSLR, and whatever else you took.
'But if you have the memory card from the camera, please, it has photos of my dog's last day alive on it. I cannot replace those photos.
'Please throw it onto the porch or put it in the mail slot. Or mail it to [an address in Toronto, Canada].
'Please, she died a few days ago, I cannot lose those photos as well.'
People were left crushed by the message, as one commented to say: "I really hope the victim got the photos back. I also hope the man or women who robbed the house stubs their pinky toe on a heavy-duty chair leg every day for as long as they live."
A second wrote: "Dude, just give them back the memory card. Leave it in the mailbox or something."
And plenty shared their own similar experiences, as another explained: "Someone stole my sister's phone while we were on our way to choose flowers for our mother's funeral. Her phone had some irreplaceable videos and pictures of our mum so it was a bigger loss than I can say."
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