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This is the moment a brazen thief breaks into I’m A Celeb star Lady Colin Campbell’s castle and steals one of her children’s Christmas presents.
The socialite, 76, who starred in the 2015 series of the reality show, is offering a reward for help catching the burglar who broke into her home at Castle Goring near Worthing, West Sussex.
She has spent a fortune returning the Grade I Listed building to its former glory and now runs the property as a wedding venue.
But Lady C‘s peaceful rural existence was this month interrupted when a man entered the huge home to swipe a festive gift.
The royal author – who has written books about the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the late Princess Diana – revealed CCTV footage of the audacious theft from the front entrance to the castle.
The clip sees the property’s wide front door opened from the outside before a bearded man, who appears to be dressed in white jeans and a white jacket, enters the castle’s porch area.
Carrying a torch, he then shuffles towards the other side of the entrance and seems to be bend down to pick something up from the floor.
Posting the footage to her social media, Lady C can be seen sitting in a chair in her home and saying: ‘We’ve had somebody come to the castle and brazenly steal Misha’s Christmas present, or one of his Christmas presents, to Dima.
This is the moment a brazen thief breaks into I’m A Celeb star Lady Colin Campbell’s castle and steals one of her children’s Christmas presents
The socialite, pictured in a social media video showing CCTV footage of the incident, is offering a reward for help catching the burglar
‘We have CCTV footage of the thief and I am going to post it. And I am also offering a reward to anybody who turns him in. I will personally pay them £500 if they provide me with his name, his address or contact details so I can get in touch with him because I am not even wasting my time with the police because they’re a dead loss.
‘I will undertake a private prosecution if the police, when I turn the thief over to them, decide they’re not going to act….which, nine times out of ten nowadays in this country, they do. Absolutely outrageous.
‘We have extensive CCTV footage of him inspecting this stuff and stealing this stuff. I’m just going to be posting a teensy weensy bit.’
Castle Goring is located just off the A27 north of Worthing, a few miles from Arundel.
Seaside resort Worthing has long been popular with celebrities. Harold Pinter once lived in the area and Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance Of Being Earnest while staying in a hotel there.
Celebrity Traitors star Joe Marler began his rugby union career at Worthing Rugby Club, and current nearby residents include Des Lynam, John Inverdale and Lizzie Webb.
Last month it was revealed more than £600million of parcels ordered by Brits were stolen in the last year, according to devastating research.
Experts warned shoppers to be on their guard ahead of Christmas this year after it emerged almost five million households have fallen victim to so-called ‘porch pirates’ in the space of 12 months.
Lady C starred in the 2015 series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here, pictured
Analysts said this equates to roughly a 31 per cent rise in parcel theft year-on-year – but that the true scale of the issue is unknown because so few people actually report their missing post to police.
And thefts are costing shoppers dear. The average value of a parcel swiped by an opportunistic criminal has risen from £102 to £138 in the last year.
Police data provided to the Daily Mail shows that, unsurprisingly, December is the busiest time of year for parcel thieves, closely followed by November.
In fact, to the chagrin of Black Friday and Christmas shoppers, around 28 per cent of all thefts between July 2024 and June this year were reported in the festive shopping period – up from a fifth last year.
