I was burgled just two months after moving in to Bristol home

A man who moved to Bristol for work was burgled within two months of coming to the city.

Paul Wilder still had the majority of his possessions boxed up in the garage of his new rented home in Longwell Green when criminals broke in and stole more than £2,000 worth of goods.

The burglary happened in Steel Court some time between 5pm on Friday, February 26, and 6pm on Monday, March 1, when Mr Wilder was away.

He came back and discovered a number of things close to his heart had been stolen.

The offenders stole specialist diving equipment, including a dive computer (Mares Sub M1 model number 414110) and underwater casing for a camera (Sony MPK-NA). They also got away with Mr Wilder's collection of sci-fi and fantasy DVDs – more than 200 – many of which were still in their wrapping.

A Sony stereo system is also missing.

Mr Wilder moved from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Bristol in January to take up a job working for the NHS training people to use IT systems.

"It's very annoying and unfortunate that this has happened," said the 43-year-old. "I put an extra padlock at the bottom of the garage door but they had completely shattered the door lock and broken the padlock off. The dive computer has the records of all the dives I've done, so I am very keen to get that back.

"I had built up the DVD collection over the last few years and most of them I hadn't even watched.

"The underwater camera housing was also unused and it will only work with a few types of digital camera.

"Even though there was stuff all over the place that the burglars had pulled around, it appears they've checked most of the boxes carefully to find anything valuable.

"The forensic officers checked for fingerprints but unfortunately all they found were some lovely prints of the heavy canvas gloves the burglars were wearing."

Mr Wilder, who has now beefed up the security in his garage even more, warned other members of the public to take extra security measures to make sure they do not become burglary victims too.

Anyone who witnessed anything suspicious on the night in question or who has information on the whereabouts of the stolen goods should call Staple Hill police station on 0845 456 7000. Alternatively, they can call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.