A MOTHER-of-three has pleaded for the return of nearly a lifetime of precious photos, stolen from her family’s new Ipswich home.

On Sunday afternoon, Nicholas and Emma Bennett were moving the finishing pieces into their new home in Wellesley Road, off Foxhall Road, when they realised their most prized possessions were missing. Mum Emma says she is still in disbelief.

“They don’t realise what a devastating effect they’ve had. It’s your lives, your memory, your children,” she said.

While they were moving house to just a few doors away in the same street, an intruder helped themselves to an HP laptop computer, a red notebook computer, which 18-year-old Amy had saved up for six months ago, and a hard-drive device.

The laptop is desperately needed by mum Emma who is working for an early childhood studies degree.

“You don’t imagine someone is going to walk into your house when you’re going in and out of it.

“It was such a small window of opportunity, they took advantage,” she says.

The Bennetts’ family photos and videos from the past five years, daughter Amy’s recent 18th birthday celebrations, and the entire life of two-year-old daughter Elizabeth were stored on the stolen electronic goods.

“It makes my skin crawl, that we walk up and down this street we’ve lived in for two years and the thief could still be watching or having a laugh,” she said.

“We’re an honest hardworking family that doesn’t deserve someone to come in and steal something so precious.”

Also with the computers were two cover sleeves, one displaying the music band the Foo Fighters, and the other picturing the three Bennett children.

Emma and husband Nicholas would like to offer a �100 reward to a person who can return their photos.

“You don’t have to go to the police, just e-mail the paper, or say you’ve found them on the street,” she said. “It’s not the electrical goods we’re worried about, it’s the photos.”

If you’ve seen the Bennett’s belongings, or have any information, contact Suffolk police on 101 and ask for PC Sarah Munnings.