A DUBBO family has returned home from a holiday to find their children's cubby house smashed to bits by intruders who also tried to break into their house.
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Lynda Wilson told the Daily Liberal her two younger daughters aged four and five were "devastated" by the discovery, given they spent most weekends playing in the cubby house.
Disgusted residents took to social media to express their outrage when Ms Wilson posted photos of the damage, describing the perpetrators as "scum", "mongrels", "heartless dogs" and "brainless idiots".
Ms Wilson and her family had returned to their Sheraton Meadows home on Sunday night, but information from witnesses suggested the incident most likely took place on Thursday afternoon.
Some contributors to social media suggested strong winds in recent days could have brought down the cubby house, but Ms Wilson said it was a "good-quality, heavy-duty cubby house" and other equipment around it remained undisturbed.
Not to mention that housebreaking implements were also discovered in the family's garden, she said.
"I was thinking the damage to the cubby house was so severe, it had to be inflicted with something, and so my husband and I went out with a torch on Sunday night and found two crowbars sitting in the garden by the back door," she said.
"And we found they tried to pull open the laundry door using the crowbars."
The incident was reported to police.
Ms Wilson said she was most thankful intruders armed with crowbars had not gained entry to the house while her housesitter was inside, possibly because they were disturbed.
"It's frightening to think what could have happened," she said.
Meanwhile Ms Wilson said the perpetrators had "broken two little girls' hearts".
"It's just sick that someone would do this to a child," she said.
"There are so many things they could have smashed that wouldn't necessarily have meant anything, but to my little girls this cubby house meant everything.
"We can't think why someone would want to hurt us like this. I'm just hoping that if it was teenagers or whatever, teenagers talk, we might find something out."
Ms Wilson said while they were not optimistic, her husband would try to salvage what he could of the cubby house in the coming days, or perhaps contact a builder for help to try to fix it.