The Johnson Road home of the late sporting legend Thomas A. Robinson was broken into Tuesday afternoon, his family said. Robinson died of cancer on Sunday. Family members described the theft as a heartless act. He shared the home with his daughter Erica Robinson. Robinson said the thief got away with several pieces of memorabilia, including a silver cross pendant and a gold chain, which both had great sentimental value to the family. "You can't replace that in terms of the memories, in terms of what it means," she said.

"The value, it doesn't really matter, but it's just the invasion which was extraordinarily difficult at this time to deal with. "With everything going on I was so sad. I was distraught to find somebody would just be so indecent and heartless to come in and steal at this time." Robinson said the family hopes the items will be returned. "The people are gong to sell these items so we're hoping that if people see these items that they just take them to the police station or just hand them in," she said. In addition to jewelery, money and electronics were also stolen, including a laptop, Robinson said.

"Thankfully, his medals were in place," she said. "That's one of the first things I checked for." Robinson's medals, which were encased in several frames, remained in his bedroom. While Erica Robinson said the family hopes to get the jewelery back, she said that is not where the focus is. "My focus is on dealing with the passage of my father," she said. "At the end of the day these things can be replaced. We still have his memories.

We have all the memories that we shared with him...My dad was here up until his passing, so you want to come here and be at peace and for something like that to happen it just uproots everything. "It was horrible." Robinson added, "We are a close-knit family. We're a strong family. We do what it is that he taught us to do, which is to stick together and be strong. "He never gave up during his fight with cancer. Mentally he never gave up.

It was his time. God decided it was his time. He didn't want him to suffer any longer. But mentally he decided to fight. And that is what we do as a family also." Thomas Robinson's son, Cyril Robinson, who was also at the house yesterday, said the robbery could not have come at a worse time. "It's devastating at this particular time to just have the invasion," he said. "No one was hurt; luckily no one was here. We can replace the things that were lost, but we can't replace peace of mind and unfortunately that's what these guys took."

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