A husband and wife were heartbroken today after treasured videos of their children’s first years were stolen from their Black Country home.

Sally and Neil Ashwood, of Dudley, are now appealing for the thieves to return the cassettes. Six tapes were taken along with a camcorder and a laptop during the daytime burglary at their house in Hall Lane, Hurst Hill, Coseley. They contained footage of the couple’s two daughters, Isobel and Emily, now aged four and three, including their first steps and baths.

They were also filmed in hospital after they were born.

Mrs Ashwood, aged 32, said: “I am absolutely devastated and heartbroken. I haven’t stopped crying.

“They are of huge sentimental value and mean so much to us. We can replace electronic items, but we could never replace these.

“We’ve got photographs of the children, but its not the same as having videos of special moments like when they were born.

“It was a record of our children growing up.”

Mrs Ashwood, a housewife, added: “We are desperate to get the cassettes back. We don’t care about the camcorder, we just want the cassettes returned.

“We are hoping that the thief has thrown them away somewhere and someone might have found them. They are not worth anything to anyone but us.

“I would ask anyone who finds them to take them to a police station.”

The couple returned home on Thursday, August 20, at around 1.30pm to find they had been burgled and the items had been stolen from the dining room.

Mrs Ashwood said: “It was a huge shock.

“When I pulled onto the drive the gates were open and they are normally closed. Fortunately, they had only been into the dining room. It could have been a lot worse if they had taken more of our belongings.”

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Zoe Coward confirmed the burglary, which took place between 8.45am and 1.30pm, had been reported to police and said investigations were continuing.