Thieves raided a patio at a home for the elderly and stole their pride and joy – garden ornaments bought through their own fundraising.
Brunlea Care Home, in Surfleet Road, Pinchbeck, looks after dementia sufferers among its 19 residents.
The life-size and life-like garden ornaments were much-loved conversation pieces as residents admired chickens, cockerels, owls and tortoises through the dining room window.
Care home manager Tracey Laud said: “They absolutely loved them, they really did.
“We have got a couple of residents who are really quite poorly and we would sit them near the dining room window so they could look at the ornaments.”
One resident was so attached to the collection she was given her own chick.
The care home already had some ornaments but added more to the collection three weeks ago, using £100-plus raised at a barbecue.
Mrs Laud said: “We split the proceeds from the barbecue between Macmillan Cancer Support and ourselves.
“We do try to raise a little bit for the community.
“We don’t raise a great deal because we are only a small home and that makes the theft all the worse, really.”
Around half the collection of ornaments disappeared over the weekend.
“They came over the gate and onto the patio to take them,” said Mrs Laud.
The manager was worried about a possible theft when the new ornaments were set out, but was reassured by other members of staff that they would be okay.
Mrs Laud said: “It wasn’t a drive-by theft because you can’t see them from the road.”
l Anyone with information on the theft – or knows where the ornaments are now – can call police on 101.