The hydraulic jack used by the burglar to prise the steel work apart.

Wilburg, who was sleeping alongside her husband and their young baby, recalled that around 4:00 h, she woke up, rolled over and looked through her bedroom door which was ajar, only to be confronted by a man standing in the doorway and pointing a gun in their direction.

The Wilburg house in Lamaha Park.

The woman screamed and impulsively jumped out of bed, shouting ‘Thief! Thief!’, waking her husband. At that, the intruder bolted through an open window.

But in his haste to escape, he left behind a hydraulic jack which he had used to prise apart the steel grill-work on the window, in order to squeeze his way in.

The tool remained neatly fitted between two bars of steel on the window. And on the ground outside the window was one of the phones he had taken from the house, connected to its charger.

The louvre window panes which he removed from the window were placed neatly on the ground out in the yard.

Wilburg, who surmised that the man must have been in her home for quite some time before being detected, was in such a state of shock when visited by this newspaper, she was unable to say what else might have been missing from the house.

On the floor in the dining room were her son’s school books which the robber had emptied in order to use the back pack to fetch his booty away. Meanwhile, the child and his sister, sleeping in their bedroom, were unaware of the man’s presence in the house, even though he might have been observing them, and looking around their room as well.

The couple also feels that there may have been another person outside, to whom he had handed the items. She said the door had been properly secured so that he was unable to open it to get out, or even pass any sizeable item through. It was perhaps for this reason that the men did not take away the desk top computer nor television set and other larger items.

The East La Penitence police were contacted and responded promptly, but the men had left even before the phone call was made.

Meanwhile, residents in the scheme reported that, over the last few days, intruders were breaking into people’s homes when they are away at work or asleep at nights.

Lamaha Park has a community policing group which is currently reorganizing, following a period of dormancy.

Friday, June 19, 2009