HEARTLESS thieves broke into a pensioner's bungalow on the day of his wife's funeral.

Daniel Hemmingway, 81, was grieving the loss of his wife at a post-funeral reception when they broke in to his home in Ashley Drive, Hazlemere.

He returned from the wake at his daughter Jeanette Crawford's house in Sawpit Hill, Hazlemere, at 10.45pm on February 8, to find wind whistling though windows left open by thieves who escaped empty-handed from the back of the property.

Mr Hemmingway said: "They must have heard us come down the path and got out through the bathroom or the kitchen window.

"I was lucky the next day I went through everything and there was nothing missing."

The retired post office worker was dropped off by friends after the gathering to celebrate the life of his wife, Margaret, who died aged 77, in Wycombe Hospital after a stroke last month.

Mr Hemmingway was a full-time carer for his wife who suffered a series of strokes in the last three-and-a-half years.

He paid tribute to the woman he met at a Wycombe fairground in 1941, and said: "She was great and any of our five grandchildren would tell you the same.

"The last couple of weeks she couldn't eat or speak and she had to be drip fed. I kept hoping she would come out of it but she deteriorated and became worse and worse."

More than 50 friends and family attended the funeral to pay their respects to Mrs Hemmingway, mother of Jeanette and Yvonne.

Mr Hemmingway said: "The funeral went very well but I came back here and it really knocked it out of me.

"It upset everyone and nobody could believe it. It was a terrible and heartless thing to do."

The thieves raided Mr Hemmingway's greenhouse for tools which they used to break into the bungalow.