If you’re like my parents, the most valuable keepsakes and achievements your kid left behind at home include mediocre report cards and poorly shaped Mother’s Day pottery.
But, if you’re the parents of former super middleweight champ James DeGale? Your son has much more impressive mementos. And unfortunately, as we learned from DeGale’s Instagram account, the boxer and his family are reaching out for help recovering some precious items stolen from his parents’ home yesterday.
The two stolen items DeGale mentioned specifically are his Olympic gold medal and his MBE order of chivalry.
DeGale won his gold medal as a middleweight at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He received his MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) on New Year’s Eve of that year “for services to Sport” in honor of his Olympic success.
DeGale with his MBE in 2009 Photo by Anthony Devlin/WPA Pool/Getty Images
Our readers outside of the United Kingdom that don’t have a Wikipedia head start may be unfamiliar with the significance of an MBE honor. To put it into context, among DeGale’s fellow recipients that year was Lewis Hamilton, honored for becoming the youngest Formula One World Champion in history. It’s a great honor awarded by the monarchy, one that stands as part of DeGale’s legal title.
2004 Olympic bronze medalist Andre Dirrell expressed sympathy in response to DeGale’s post. Dirrell called the theft the work of “Sorry S.O.B’s,” and encouraged DeGale to reach out to the Olympic committee for a replacement if the original isn’t recovered.
Unfortunately, the photo DeGale shared doesn’t offer much to go on in identifying a suspect. The person in the image could be a Hong Kong protestor, a jawa, or Noob Saibot from the Mortal Kombat video game series. The hooded, black-clad person isn’t even clearly discernible as male or female.
DeGale asks anyone with information to share to report it to the proper authorities. We wish him the best of luck recovering his property.
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