A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy has been left devastated after thieves stole his pet rabbit during a suspected crime spree in the Gorleston area.

The black pet named Molly, belonging to Dylan Stolworthy, was stolen from the garden of the family home in Duke Road overnight on Friday.

Dylan’s mother Debbie, 43, said she checked on Molly in her hutch at about midnight and she was still there, but when she went out on Saturday morning she found the locked hutch had been opened and Molly was gone.

She added: “I have had a devastated little boy crying his eyes out since Molly went missing.”

The thieves had to cut through wire mesh to get into the hutch and Mrs Stolworthy said traces of blood were found on the meshing.

She believed the thieves had had to climb over the top of a neighbour’s high gate to get into her property and said other neighbours had reported their rabbits being stolen, despite using padlocks on hutches to protect their pets.

Mrs Stolworthy, and husband Roy, 38, bought Molly eight years ago as a rescue pet from the pet shop Little or Large Animal Supplies in Gorleston High Street.

Mrs Stolworthy added: “I want people to be aware that there are thieves out there carrying out these crimes.”

A Norfolk police spokesman confirmed police were called to the house to investigate the thefts. She added: “They have conducted house-to-house inquiries.”

l Pictured is Dylan Stolworthy with his mother Debbie.

Picture: JAMES BASS