A FAMILY have been left devastated after a thief stole £4,000 worth of valuables from their work van.

Debbie and Dave Northfield were horrified to watch their CCTV which showed a thief breaking into their Ford Transit Connect, by smashing the passenger window with a brick.

Shortly after, the thief left with valuables including a DJI drone worth £1,300, two go-pro cameras, memory cards, a video camera, radio and more.

They were being temporarily stored inside the van, which was parked outside of their business, Victor Trophies, in Luckyn Lane, Basildon.

Dave, 58, from Grays, said: “It’s just devastating that anyone could break into someone else’s property and steal thousands worth, just like that.

“It’s not even just us that are being affected, I’m the coach for Essex Youth, and use the equipment to film them during their rugby training and matches so they can work on their technique and see how to improve.

“I can’t do that any more because of these scumbags. The kids are going to be heartbroken that they have to miss out.

“We thought the van would be safe there as the battery is dead and there’s CCTV. We had nowhere else to park, with it being my daughter’s wedding, there were cars all outside of our house.

“We went from such a lovely time celebrating our daughter’s wedding, to this. It’s extremely upsetting, this stuff is irreplaceable to us.

“You could see on the CCTV that he was trying to get into other locked units along the road as well. Who knows where else he hit.”

The family are appealing for information, hoping that someone may have seen the break in, which took place around 9am on Sunday.

Debbie, 52, also from Grays, added: “The trouble is there’s no deterrent, these people know they can get away with it.

“It’s just major stress that we don’t need. The man obviously knows what he’s doing, you can see in the CCTV that he put tissue over his hand when he opened the van.

“Anyone that can do this is just not a nice person at all. He left a camera case and water bottles outside, so he had evidently gone through it with a fine toothcomb to get the more valuable items.

“He could’ve left the area for all we know or sold on our stuff, it’s devastating when you work so hard for something to have it taken away like this.

“You should be able to leave your own things inside your property, especially when it’s parked outside your own business, without it being robbed.

“We’re the victims and haven’t gotten anywhere, it’s time and money we don’t have.

“We need help catching this man.”

Anyone who has any information should call Essex Police on 101, quoting crime reference number 42/124989/19 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.