A COUPLE in their 80s returned home  to discover that burglars had struck and stole their garden furniture.

Norman Cotton, 82, has lived with his wife Audrey, 81, on Ravenhead Road for 50 years. He said: "Me and my wife are both disabled and the only pleasure we get is to sit in the garden and have a read and a drink. It was black rattan furniture and we only had it a couple of months.

"We had been visiting our daughter in the Isle of Man and when we came back it had gone.

"There were two armchairs, a settee, table and a big umbrella that you wind up and down. It was nice stuff but it wasn't visible from the road. You can get to the back of our house down a passageway. We contacted the police who have had a look at CCTV. It looks like it was a gang of young hoodies.

"Apparently someone did see them carrying things across Ravenhead Road, over the Cobbs and to the railway line that runs close by.

"We have accepted the fact that its gone but I would like to know who did it."