Sally Ridge wasn’t even aware a stranger had been through the house until she couldn’t find her wallet the next morning and the horrifying reality of the burglary became clear.
The incident came to light when Sally’s fiance, former Black Cap Adam Parore, asked where her wallet was, as he needed change before going to work. Sally, who was having breakfast with the four children, Jaime (16), Boston (12), Astin (6) and Mclane (3), thought her mind was playing tricks on her when Adam insisted her wallet wasn’t where she had left it the previous evening.
“I told him it was on the table, and he said, ‘No, it’s not.’ I got a bit grumpy and went to look but there was no sign of it,” says Sally. “I’d also been in my office in the house that morning and noticed it was a bit of a mess, papers everywhere. I thought the children had been in there and was grumpy about that too.
“Then I checked again and saw that my laptop and camera were gone. That’s when we suddenly knew exactly what had happened while we were asleep. “We heard nothing, not a thing. It’s so horrible to think someone had been in the house when we were sleeping and I hate to think what could have happened if any of us had got up and disturbed them.”
The children are still shocked and scared by the recent burglary, says Sally. “Poor Boston went to check if the thief had taken his special baseball, which had been signed by top players. It was quite sweet really,” she says. “I was saying, ‘Boston, I don’t think they would take your baseball,’ but he had to make sure. They still fi nd it hard to understand why someone would do something so awful.”
But the most devastating loss for Sally and Adam isn’t the cost of the property taken – it’s the irreplaceable memories of little Mclane’s life that were stolen as part of the haul. More than 3000 photographs, charting every special milestone in Mclane’s life, were stored on Sally’s laptop. And on a digital camera, also taken in the burglary, were unsaved photographs of Sally and Jaime on the trip of a lifetime to Paris, London, Los Angeles and New York they took for Jaime’s 16th birthday.
“The photos of Mclane started at her birth and went right up until recently. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t save them anywhere else, and that all of them are gone now,” says Sally sadly. “I only have a few photos left of Mclane. And to lose the pictures of the trip Jaime and I took is also so unfair. That was an once-in-a-lifetime, incredible holiday for us both.”
New Zealand Woman’s Weekly is giving Sally and Adam copies of all the photographs of Mclane taken during photo shoots for the magazine to help ease their heartache.
It’s still not clear how the burglar got into the property, which is the couple’s “dream home”, built specifically for their family and completed two years ago. When the house was constructed, Sally and Adam made sure high-tech security was put in place, but they have added even more since the incident. “We’re not taking any chances. We’ve got all the bells and whistles now,” says Sally. “When something like this happens you lose your peace of mind – it’s so important to feel safe in your own home.”
The burglary has topped off a very challenging year for Sally, who juggles being a mum-of-four with running her clothing company, James & August, in March, her stepfather, who is a diabetic, had a low blood-sugar attack while driving in the Auckland suburb of Ponsonby and crashed into a shop. Luckily, nobody was injured and her stepfather recovered quickly.
In September, she and her ex-husband Matthew Ridge settled a long-running million-dollar leaky home lawsuit over a property they sold in 1998. With those dramas behind her, Sally now hopes life will settle down in 2010 – and things are already looking up. Police believe they know who the burglar is and investigations are continuing. Sadly, the missing property has not yet come to light – although Sally hopes for the best.
With those dramas behind her, Sally now hopes life will settle down in 2010 – and things are already looking up. Police believe they know who the burglar is and investigations are continuing. Sadly, the missing property has not yet come to light, although Sally hopes for the best.
“Someone must have the laptop and camera, and will see the pictures. If they haven’t wiped them, if we could get those back, that would be wonderful. “They are absolutely irreplaceable. They have no value to anyone else, but they are priceless to us.”
