Plymouth litter pickers find war memorabilia stolen during 2019 burglary 

• Clean Our Patch put this video on social media to try and find out more.

Litter pickers in Plymouth have found the stolen goods from a burglary that took place five years ago. 

Clean Our Patch were out in the Laira area of Plymouth on Wednesday 28 August when they found a carrier bag thrown over a fence. 

El Clarke, one of the group founders, said: “We didn’t think much of it, but inside was a pillow case containing silver coins, silver stamps, war medals, and things related to someone in the Parachute Regiment.

“It was a bit of a mad find really.”

She said it wasn’t an area you could run through to quickly dump items, so it must have been put there deliberately. 

The group put a post on social media to try and find out more information.

El said: “We had a massive response from the community. 

“Somebody got in touch and said she’d tracked down it was related to a 2019 crime.”

The crime in question was a burglary in Larkham Lane, Plympton. 

The incident occurred on 26 September 2019 between 8.30am-5.30pm.

Speaking at the time, investigating officer DC Jason Rowe said: "A significant amount of jewellery and valuable items were taken from this property during this incident.

"The victim, a man in his 50s, was informed by his family that a number of items had been taken from the address.

"These items range from watches and earrings, to medals and gold sovereign coins and are of sentimental value to the victim."

On Thursday 29 August, El took the goods to Devon and Cornwall Police, hoping it could find the owner. 

She said: “This is the most high value thing we’ve found. This was definitely the biggest haul we’ve found before. 

“We were so pleased that people embraced it on social media. We were quite hopeful someone would know something due to the military side to Plymouth. 

“It’s awesome we’ve been able to link it back to a crime.”  

Devon and Cornwall Police said they are working to return the haul to the owner.