Heartless thieves steal Airforce war medals in Queensland robbery

A Royal Australian Airforce veteran is devastated after heartless thieves smashed their way into his Ipswich home and robbed him of his service medals.

They also stole jewellery which belonged to his wife, who died of breast cancer.

Ross Cussons was a gifted aircraft repairer, awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for fixing seemingly impossible damage.

He earned it and thieves stole it, along with three other precious medals.

“Maybe somewhere along the line they've got something that they value and how would they feel if someone took that off them,” Mr Cussons said.

The medals represented four decades of service, including in Malaysia, and doing repairs on the famous F111s.

The decorations and jewellery were to be passed down to the retiree's three children and six grandchildren.

Mr Cussons hopes the engraving of his name on some of the medals will lead to a breakthrough, or that the bandits will have a change of heart.

“If you've got them and you see this please give them back, give ‘em to somebody, drop them at a police station, give them to somebody else to hand back, but please if you could hand them back,” he said.

The callous robbers also raided a safe for savings that were supposed to fund home renovations.

Anyone with information should call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.