Arnold Velthuis passed away earlier this year leaving his biscuit tins, stamps and coins, after collecting for more than three decades, with his son Frederick.

“I came back about 7.30am, opened the security door and then I got to the wooden door and realised something was wrong,” Fred said. 

“There’s a latch on the inside of the door which I can’t leave locked when I leave, but it had been put in place by someone after I had left the house yesterday.”

Fred then noticed the light was on and saw the house had been trashed.

“I knew then that we had been broken into,” he said. 

“I went around the back, fearing the worst and saw the back-door wide open.”

Fred immediately called emergency services to notify them. 

The treasures and the house that had been a home to Fred for so many years, had been completely trashed. Drawers were tipped out and collectibles strewn over the floor.

“I could see all the devastation,” he said. 

“To see my dad’s stuffed all trashed made me very emotional and the lady next door came over as three of the collectible tins ended up outside her house.

“As soon as I saw that, the tears started coming and there’s no words to describe it.

“You get to the stage where you think ‘I knew there was low-life around here but I didn’t think there was total scum’.”

Thankfully Fred said, there doesn’t seem to have been too much taken, but the offenders showed complete and utter disrespect. 

“That’s when the emotions come through, thinking how dare you come in and take from dead people,” he said. 

“I know I am not the only person this has happened to and our justice system needs to do something about it.

“The worst part is I have locked this house up the best I can every time I leave and they can still get inside.

“What I am grateful for is none of the windows are smashed and the wallpaper my mum put up is still intact.”

Fred has called on the justice system to do more to deal with break-ins. 

“We have got to get the message out there to the judges to have some intestinal fortitude and put these low-lives away,” he said. 

Fred was extremely close with his father, after being his full-time carer for more than 12 months, he previously told The Daily Advertiser. 

“I would never wish him dead, but he’s at peace and so am I because for the last 15 years, since my mum passed, my life has revolved around my dad.

“He wasn’t one of my best friends, he was the best friend that I had.”

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