A Scots dog lover has been left heartbroken after callous thieves stole two urns containing the ashes of her late pets during a late-night break in.
Sharon Cochrane was horrified to discover the engraved containers had been taken from her Falkirk summer house after it was targeted on Monday night.
The 43-year-old told how she had bought one of the now-deceased dogs, Bruno, after being the victim of a separate robbery in 1998.
Dobermann Kira joined the family a short time later, becoming the first pets of daughter Sophie, and were both cremated after passing away.
The mother-of-one discovered the heartbreaking theft on Tuesday morning and is appealing for walkers in the Tamfourhill area to keep an eye out in case the items were dumped.
The business development manager said: “When I noticed the urns had been taken, I was absolutely heartbroken.
“As the day went on and I kept looking over at the empty shelf, I got more and more upset.
“I’m so angry that someone would come into my property and take something that means so much to us.
“I just want them back. Material things can be replaced but these ashes can’t. I feel like a little piece of us is missing now.
“The reason I never scattered them was because I always wanted to keep them close to us so it’s really, really upsetting.
“I just hope that they’ll do the right thing and get them back to us somehow.
“If they could just leave them in a public place, hopefully someone will recognise them and hand them in to the police station or something.”
The stolen blue and pink urns both have engraved lids with the names of the dogs on them and are of the same design.
Sharon believes the summer house, which is used as a temporary office due to the lockdown, was targeted at around midnight on Monday.
She explained: “I let the dogs out and one of the dogs was going crazy up and down the garden, sniffing the air.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen him acting like that. I thought he had encountered his first fox but now I think they were in the summer house at that time and the dogs disturbed them.
“When I saw that the door and gate had been forced open on Tuesday morning, I realised someone had broken in.
“I kept thinking, why would somebody steal an urn but then the penny dropped that they must have thought they were money jars.
“The lid on one of them was quite loose so if you lifted it up, you would’ve been able to see that there wasn’t any money inside.
“I think it’s been an opportunist because all they took was a broken record player and the two urns. There was a pair of designer sunglasses on the desk and they didn’t touch them.”
