Thieves raid garden shed days after man’s death

A WOMAN has spoken of her sadness after thieves stole sentimental items belonging to her late father just days after his death.

A black bike, long ladders, gardening tools and gardening baskets were taken from James Portch’s home in Harpsden Road, Henley, on Thursday last week.

Mr Portch, 73, had died in hospital five days beforehand.

His daughter, Jessica, who lives in Hampshire, discovered the gardening equipment had been taken from his shed when she came up to clear his things from the property.

She said the items had little monetary value, with some being around 30 years old, but there was sentiment attached to them.

She said: “It makes it worse that it happened after he died. That was sentimental stuff and it just felt really awful. One of the things missing was his big basket which he kept his gardening tools in. He had just said to my sister a week before ‘You can have my secateurs that are in there’.”

Ms Portch said that when she began clearing the bungalow in an over-50s living community two days before the theft the equipment was in the shed. She said: “We had told neighbours as they were asking when he would be back from hospitalMy sister had checked the shed a week before as my dad had asked: ‘Can you double-check the stuff in the shed?’ as the lock door had broken. It was all in there and that’s when he said to her: ‘You can have my secateurs’. She replied: ‘Next time, dad’.

“When we went back to the house on Thursday, they were gone. We opened the shed, which is an old concrete one behind the housing block, and you could see that the bike had gone. Then we spotted the basket and ladder had gone as well as the tools hanging on the sides of the shed.”

The bicycle has since been retrieved. Ms Portch said: “We asked people if they had seen anything as there is a locked gate behind that someone could have gone through. Most said ‘Not that I know of’ but one had seen the bike outside the shed so he put it in his shed for safe keeping.

“I presume the thieves had taken the other stuff and planned to come back for the bike. We kind of put out an appeal but haven’t heard anything and have gone to the police but there’s not a lot they can do.

“I find it strange how the ladders, which were huge, were taken but the bike wasn’t when someone would have needed a vehicle to take them or else walked with them.”

Ms Portch said her father, who had lived in Henley for more than 20 years, was an avid gardener and particularly enjoyed growing herbs.

She said: “He had done it since we were children. He was an electrical manager so gardening was his downtime when he could be with nature, down by the river. He was really outdoorsy.

“He was quite a character and loved to talk to people, a really knowledgeable man. He would walk down to town every day and walk back with his shopping. Lots of shopkeepers and people knew him and stopped to talk to him.

“We have kept the herbs as he had them all in pots. He was really practical and would recycle and make things, including in the garden, such as cuttings. He would find seeds and grow things from them. He also loved to cook; it was his other passion.

“A lot of the tools he’d had since we were children, so for 30-odd years or maybe longer as we are in our forties now. They meant a lot to us but wouldn’t have been of any value to anyone else.

“It sounds really silly but the basket is particularly important to us as my sister and I can remember dad using it.

“Also the long pair of ladders as we can remember him using them to fix stuff on the roof, cutting trees and so on.

“We just want them back. I am not bothered about who took them. I would just like them back for dad.”

Ms Portch said the theft wasn’t representative of her father’s time in Henley.

She said: “My dad was going blind and he had lost his vision since lockdown, so he used to have to walk with a white stick. He always said people in the town were really kind and helped him.

“He was quite touched that people would take their time to help him cross the road as he really struggled.

“That’s what is really upsetting as well. I know it’s not personal but he was always frightened of being robbed as an older person losing his sight.”

Police have been informed.