A Beccles pensioner who returned home from a night out to find her house had been burgled has appealed for two female dog walkers to come forward after they recovered some of her stolen jewellery.

The lady in her 70s was at Beccles Public Hall watching Cinderella with her husband before she returned home to discover her house ransacked with the kitchen window forced open.

But in a surprising chain of events, two ladies walking their dogs noticed something glimmering in a ditch at Hales several days later and managed to rescue some of the missing jewellery discarded there.

Now the victim is keen for the women to come forward so she can thank them personally for their kindness in returning her items.

She said: 'Apparently they saw something shiny in a bush and when they went over they found some of the jewellery in the ditch so I did get my Swarkovski necklace and my mother of pearl necklace back, in all about eight pieces.

'I got them back because there was a receipt in one of the boxes and it had our address on it. I think on the Tuesday after it happened my husband answered the door and they asked if we had had a break in. We said yes and then they gave us the items. We were so emotional though that we forgot to ask them their names.

'I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for finding my jewellery and I would like to ask them to come forward. You hear about these things happening to other people and you never think it will be you.'

The burglary happened at Centre Close between 6.30pm and 9.30pm on Wednesday, November 30, and both jewellery and cash were stolen.

'When we got home I said to my husband that we'd left the bedroom light on. When we went up there they'd had everything out of the drawers. We then went into the lounge and things had been pulled about there as well. The back door was wide open and the kitchen window where they had got in. I can't tell you how we felt, we were really shocked.'

The pensioner said all of the jewellery had sentimental value and had belonged to both her and her husband.

The couple also had nearly £500 in the house, which was stolen.

'We had a party last Saturday night as it was our golden wedding so the reason we had the money in the house was to pay the caterers and for the music.'

• Anyone who knows the female dog walkers or has information about the burglary is asked to call Lowestoft CID on 101, quoting crime number 69157/16.