Brazen burglars rounded off a hard night's looting by munching through their victims' weekly food shopping while the unwitting family slept soundly upstairs.

Then, taking the food which they couldn't eat on the spot, and booty from the rest of the house, the raiders drove off in both of the family's cars.

When hungry mum Jahan Shefta strolled into her kitchen in to rustle up breakfast for her family, she stumbled across empty juice cartons, sweet wrappers and a minefield of crumbs.

Their haul from the house in Lytham Drive, Clayton Heights, Bradford included a Sky digital TV box, a Bradford and Bingley pass book, and a UK national passport.

The family's Volvo 340 was found abandoned at the end of the street but their Hyundai Atos which was on hire, was later found in Manchester Road, West Bowling, Bradford.

Jahan had spent £65 on shopping the night before and the looters managed to scoff or steal most of it - only leaving behind the fruit and vegetables.

As well as taking the school lunches meant for brothers Adam, 13, and ten-year-old Amir, the burglars sloped off with a spicy cooked chicken which 49-year-old dad David Shefta had been looking forward to eating.

He said: "That was going to be my dinner, and I would have enjoyed it more than them.

"And they took half a carton of grapefruit juice to wash it down with.

"But at least they're clean - they stole the tissues from the back of my car.

"Then they took the Manchester United videos and left the Alan Shearer one, I really wish they had done that the other way around. But worst of all, they stole our Bradford City caps."

But after Jahan, a 44-year-old lab technician at St James's Hospital in Leeds, had got over the cheek of the crooks' midnight feast, the full horror set in of the burglary which she discovered early yesterday.

"It's really scary knowing they had been in our house while we were sleeping upstairs and knew absolutely nothing about it," she said.

"And then they were cheeky enough to take a break from stealing and go through our cupboards and fridge.

"There is a cheeky side, but at the end of the day they've entered our home and been disrespectful enough to steal from us. It's such an unpleasant feeling."

Detective Inspector Graham Duguid, of Odsal CID, said it was unnerving that the raiders had the gall to delay their exit by stopping for a snack.

He said: "The word cheeky does spring to mind, but this should not detract from the seriousness of the offence.

"Most offenders would have escaped as soon as possible, but not these. This has happened before but it is not very common."

e-mail: kanchan.dutt@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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