Zoe Farnham said she was alone in the house, bed ridden with a sinus condition, on Saturday and Sunday when thieves entered her home and took the SX65 KTM dirt bike.

The thieves removed the old locked security door at the back of her Unicomb Close home and entered the laundry where the bike was being stored.

When Ms Farnham went into the laundry on Monday morning, there was no sign of the bike.

“I’m shaken up because someone came into my house,” she said.

“They must have known it was in there – someone must have been watching.

“It was a scum act.”

Ms Farnham said the bike was being stored in the house after thieves tried to kick down the door of her backyard shed in an attempt to get to it last year.

She said she was dreading having to tell her 12-year-old son Hayden that his bike had been stolen.

Ms Farnham is urging whoever took the bike to return it.

“It was his [Hayden’s] pride and joy,” she said.

“I have rung every pawn shop and every bike shop in Maitland, Cessnock and Newcastle.”

Ms Farnham bought the bike in 2013 and she predicted it was worth about $1500.

Residents have told the Mercury that up to 10 motorbikes had been stolen in the Hunter in the past fortnight.

There have also been reports of motorbike thefts from homes at Thornton and Heddon Greta.

Central Hunter police said thieves often targeted dirt bikes because they were unregistered and difficult to track down.

But police said the number of bike thefts reported in the Hunter recently had not spiked any higher than usual.

Central Hunter crime manager Detective Inspector John Zdrilic said cases of dirt bike thefts were always on the radar of police.