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Thieves have been targeting sick youngsters – stealing toy from hospital wards.

The situation has become so bad that Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has started chaining playthings to hospital beds with bike locks.

Dad Dean Beddis was at Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital with his two-year-old boy Soren, who was a patient on the Bluebell Ward.

Doctors were treating the tot for bronchiolitis – a chest infection that affects babies.

But when the youngster tried to play with a musical toy on his cot he found it was chained up.

“These toys are there for kids who are seriously ill,” Dean said.

“They’re provided by the hospital and people are stealing them.”

The 49-year-old was appalled.

“I was shocked to see that a children’s toy had a bike lock on it attaching it to the cot,” he said.

“I was talking to the nurses about how disgusting it was that they had to do that because they were saying that people had been stealing them.”

Crooks had taken electrical goods.

“People had also been stealing TVs from the parents’ waiting room in the children’s ward,” dad-of-four Dean said.

“There was no TV there when I was last there because it had been stolen.

“Going onto a ward and stealing toys while the hospital staff are looking after their children is a sad reflection on society.”

Soren’s life was saved at the hospital after he fell ill last year.

“I’m very proud of the NHS. We are lucky to have it. The doctors, nurses and staff do a wonderful job,” Dean, who runs Newport’s Kriminal Records, said.

“You really feel for the nurses who give 100% and carry on for the kids.

“Everyone I have showed the photo to has felt the same way.”

Dean urged readers not to tolerate the criminals.

“Maybe people could donate some toys or give some money to the children’s ward,” he said.

The 49-year-old was sure it was just a small minority of people behind the thefts.

“It was a round donut-shaped toy I saw chained up,” he said.

“It lit up and played music and stuff.

“I saw two of them locked up because I was in two different rooms.

“It’s even sadder because they are for babies.”

Staff told him they were not the only things vanishing.

“They had even had people stealing doctor’s things while they were in surgery – taking clothes and all the rest of it, whether that be valuables or otherwise,” Dean said.

“And these are secure wards. You cannot just walk in there. You’ve got to press a buzzer and say who you are, you can’t just wander about.”

He wondered who the thieves were.

“The people in there are with their own kids or other kids in their family,” he said.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board runs 14 hospitals covering Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen and southern Powys.

“Unfortunately we do get toys and games taken from our hospitals,” a spokesman said.

“It is not a regular occurrence but we do encourage staff to secure and lock away some of the more popular and more expensive items.

“As with any large buildings open to the public we advise visitors and our own staff to be vigilant with valuables.

“Our hospitals have full CCTV coverage and security on site at all times.”

Dean “had to take a picture so people could see it.”

He has now used that in a calender he has produced to raise cash to buy a service dog for autistic youngster Owain Evans.

His parents are trying to raise £6,000 to fund the animal and its animal.

Calenders can be bought at Dean’s shop or donations can be made at: www.gofundme.com/9yele0 .