A Westhoughton mother has said she no longer feels safe in the home she grow up in after callous thieves broke in and stole her and her husband's

cars

.

Emily Dover came downstairs in the early hours of Tuesday morning and found people had broken into the back door of her home on Bank Side.

She ran back upstairs and her husband Kieran came down and they found out a Nissan Qashqai and a Ford Focus belonging to them had been stolen.

At around 4pm on same day they were told the Ford Focus, belonging to Mr Dover, had been involved in a high speed crash in Willows Lane in Bolton which led to it being written off.

They were told the occupants of the vehicle had fled after the collision.

The pair looked at footage which showed their first was first broken into at 1.30am and someone returned around 20 minutes later.

Mrs Dover, a 37-year-old teacher, revealed she grew up at the house in question but moved out at the age of 24.

She moved back with family recently and said she was horrified at what had happened.

She said: "I just feel really vulnerable because they broke into the house.

"The cars can be replaced, there was nothing in the cars of sentimental value, there were children's car seats.

"It is just disgusting that they stole cars seeing they belong to a young family.

"I feel vulnerable knowing that they have been in the house when we are upstairs asleep.

"We move back less than two years ago, it is my childhood home.

"We have seen cars stolen but never house broken into."

A police spokesperson said: "This was reported to us at around 3.45am on 12 April.

"Enquiries are ongoing and we ask people who live nearby to check any CCTV or doorbell footage they may have from the night.

"It is thought that one of the vehicles stolen was involved later that day in a collision on Willows Lane.

"Anyone with information should contact us online via LiveChat or by calling 101 quoting incident 349 of 12/04/2021"