John Seal was asleep when two thieves burgled his home in Chichester.
The 98-year-old had five of his medals from serving in World War 2 stolen at some time between 8.30pm on June 17 and 8.30am on June 18.
Nephew to Mr Seal, Jon Seal, said that his uncle wasn't hurt or awake when the thieves broke in.
"They found his medals in the study upstairs, it was lucky there wasn’t more damage and they didn’t come into his room. The came in while he was asleep. Luckily he wasn’t disturbed.
He said his uncle was extremely upset to have his medals taken: "Obviously, that’s the most important thing for us but he’s actually devastated to lose his medals."
"Looking through the house there’s not a lot of value except his medals but it’s five years of your life in the Second World War," he added.
Mr Seal's medals that were taken are believed to be an African Star, and Italy Star, two end of World War II medals and a Battle of Britain medal.
A campaign was started to get the war veteran's medals back to him, with hashtag #getjohnsmedalshome being used to reunite the stolen goods with the nonagenarian.
**Please RT** Our great uncle, John (98), had his WW2 medals stolen Sunday night whilst he slept. He’s very sad to have discovered this following the break in. He lives in Chichester. Please help us share to bring his medals back home #STOLEN #ww2 #Veteran #getjohnsmedalshome pic.twitter.com/SAeTFWjs7Q
— Joe Perkins (@JoeTapUK) June 19, 2018
