HEARTLESS thieves have raided the garden of a champion Lowestoft in Bloom entrant.For the past five years Jane Knights has entered the popular local competition and has been “very successful” with winning the Best Hanging Basket section for the past three years.

HEARTLESS thieves have raided the garden of a champion Lowestoft in Bloom entrant.

For the past five years Jane Knights has entered the popular local competition and has been “very successful” with winning the Best Hanging Basket section for the past three years.

“It's a tremendous feeling when you have been crowned a champion but I love flowers and do it as a hobby for my enjoyment and pride,” she said.

But in attempting to make it another successful competition this year, there was heartbreak for Mrs Knights as two out of her three hanging baskets - which were entrants in this year's competition - were stolen from her garden.

A police spokesman confirmed that two hanging baskets had been stolen between 5pm on Thursday, August 7 and 6.30am on Friday, August 8.

“It took my 20-year-old son and myself to lift them on and were secured with metal ties and garden twine but in the early hours of Friday, August 8 from five feet under my bedroom window thieves have managed to get them off and we believe drive away,” Mrs Knights said.

“Of course I was heartbroken and very upset as nothing like this had happened to me before - the baskets were worth quite a lot of money with everything that was in them,” she added.

But from her dismay, came a ray of sunshine - as The Journal revealed the 2008 Lowestoft in Bloom winners in last week's edition.

“The good news came when I found I had again won the coveted prize of Best Hanging Basket in Lowestoft,” Mrs Knights said.

After speaking to the Lowestoft In Bloom committee she was informed “to my delight” that the thieves had left her with the actual winner of the competition “so it still hangs proudly by my door,” she said.

“Someone may have purchased a hanging basket last weekend at a car boot - but its a bit late to be selling baskets at this time, so if anyone knows of someone in their area that has just put two hanging baskets outside their house they could well be mine!” Mrs Knights added.

If anyone has any information about the thefts, please telephone Lowestoft police on 01986 835300.