Edinburgh crime: Woman left 'gutted' over theft of beloved 'Claudia WinkleVan' after crook breaks into Oxgang home

Cheryl Valentine, originally from Dundee, had been down in London for work when the suspect broke into her Oxgangs house sometime between 1.30pm on March 22 and 7.30pm on March 23.

When she arrived home she immediately noticed Claudia wasn’t in the driveway, before discovering that her front door was unlocked.

"When I went in I realised some things were out of place and I’d obviously been burgled,” the 41-year-old said.

"They came in through the back door, even the locksmith said it was quite a professional outset in terms of the way they broke into the house. They stole all my good jewellery and my van – there was a spare set of van keys on the hook along with a house and garage key.”

Despite having access to everything Ms Valentine said they only took her expensive jewellery, leaving behind other high value items which could be more easily traced such as iPhones and Sonos speakers.

Among the jewellery she lost were irreplaceable pieces belonging to her grandparents, including her gran’s wedding ring, a watch which had been her grandad’s and a necklace belonging to her other gran.

“My auntie passed away last year and she had given me a little teddy fox, ‘Foxy’, that was a bit of a family joke,” she said.

Cheryl Valentine with her beloved van, Claudia Winklevan.

"It was sitting in the van when it was taken and that’s gone, it’s probably the most irreplaceable thing really. Everything else is admin, I can get another van but I can’t get that, or my grandparent’s jewellery back.”

A keen Munro bagger and traveller, Ms Valentine bought Claudia in November last year after leaving the army and returning to Scotland in 2020.

She discovered the freedom a van could offer after borrowing a friend’s and adventuring around Scotland in summer 2021.

Ms Valentine only got Claudia in November last year but had already travelled all around the country with her.

"I thought ‘let’s do it’, I love to go hill walking and I bought her because I am in love with the lifestyle,” she said.

"Even just since November I’ve been all around in it, so it’s gutting to lose that freedom.”

The business strategist went on to speak of the love and joy Claudia brought to not just her, but everyone in her community.

"Everybody loved her, it became quite personal. Even my neighbours referred to her as Claudia, everybody did, even when the police went round the doors they were talking about Claudia and what had happened.

The van was already fully kitted out when Ms Valentine bought it in November 2021.

"She became quite a well-known character.”

The day after the theft Ms Valentine took to social media to share what had happened, asking everyone to please look-out for her van and share the appeal as far and wide as possible. Within just four days it has been shared almost a thousands times and posted across countless local community pages.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of the van or on the crime itself, you should call Police Scotland 101 quoting incident number 3049 of Wednesday, March 23.

Alternatively you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you would like to remain anonymous.

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.