Digger’s joy as stolen medals returned
Published: July 9, 2007
A “FOOLISHLY brave” army veteran struggled to contain his emotion yesterday when police returned five World War II service medals stolen from his Sydney home during a robbery last month.
Alfred Tesoriero, 86, was knocked to the ground, suffering serious injuries, after he confronted a burglar inside his home in the inner-west suburb of Drummoyne.
Realising the medals had been stolen, he had given up hope of seeing them again and was delighted to hear they had been handed in at Redfern police station on Saturday.
“They’re only bits of metal but they were hard-earned,” said Mr Tesoriero, who wore them last on Anzac Day, just days before their theft.
“This means everything to me. It’s all you’ve got, the memories of the last 60 years.”
The medals were presented to Mr Tesoriero yesterday by Detective Inspector Peter Thorne, crime manager of Burwood Local Area Command, after the veteran appealed for their return.
Inspector Thorne refused to identify the man who had handed the medals in but said he claimed to have found them in a plastic bag in the garden of a house in Redfern.
While the police investigation was continuing, Inspector Thorne was unable to comment on the likelihood of an arrest.
“(It was) definitely a cowardly attack on a war veteran,” he said.
Mr Tesoriero’s wife, Grace, 84, said she and her husband had returned from their daughter-in-law’s birthday party on the night of April 29 when she realised there was someone in the house.
Her “foolishly brave” husband defied her warning not to enter the house, disturbing the man - identified as a slim, Asian man in his 30s - who ran past, knocking him to the floor, Mrs Tesoriero said.
Mr Tesoriero, who served in the Pacific with the Royal Australian Artillery between 1941 and 1946, suffered injuries to his face, shoulder and back. The signs of his injuries were still present yesterday, with his arm in a sling. He will return to hospital in two weeks for further treatment.
“Every night I go to bed I can still visualise the bloke in the house,” he said.
Mr Tesoriero said he believed it had been his duty to fight for Australia, despite the fact his Italian-born father had been imprisoned as an enemy alien after the outbreak of the war.
The medals - which included two service medals, a commemorative medal, the 1939-45 star and the Pacific Star - would have had a street value of only a few thousand dollars, police said.
“All the blokes that wear these, they’re very proud of their medals and all the functions you go to … you must have your medals,” Mr Tesoriero said.
“I’d look a fool wouldn’t I, being there amongst the RSL, without medals?”
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