Burglar escapes police search by hiding under bed

[The Dragon Master]

A man was startled by a burglar hiding beneath his bed after police officers failed to find the intruder in a search of the house.



Adam Magee, 30, had called the police after a neighbour reported seeing a man climbing into an opened window at the house on Stockton Road, Hartlepool.



But a search of the house turned up nothing unusual, and Mr Magee climbed into his bed for the night after being assured there was no threat.



Minutes later, as he lay in darkness, he heard a rustling noise coming from below him.



Mr Magee jumped out of bed and found William Sowerby, 42, crawling out from underneath the bed.



He struggled with the intruder and wrestled him to the ground, pinning him down until the police returned.



Sowerby was jailed for three-and-a-half years at Teesside Crown Court after admitting to the May 4 burglary.



Mr Magee, an out-of-work scaffolder, said: I was just lying there when I heard a noise to the left of me.





I looked across and saw a guy shuffling himself out from under my bed. It was awful and I did feel a bit scared.



It was just the shock of someone crawling from under my bed. It was all a bit surreal.



He rushed towards me and tried to get out of the door, but I grabbed him and opened the door and we just started to wrestle.



Mr Magee said he and Sowerby were bashing around on the landing for three minutes until his housemate Sam Gilbert, 30, rushed downstairs to call police, who were still nearby.



Sowerby's solicitor John Ellwood told the court Sowerby, who has a 30-year record of offending, roamed the streets at night because he was unable to sleep after mixing heroin and cocaine with his prescribed medication of an antipsychotic drug.



Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...scapes-police-search-by-hiding-under-bed.html

 

[Jazzy]

This could have turned out with that poor man dead if that burglar had a weapon

Stupid isn't even the word for the police. Even I would have known to look under a bed

 

[Rapunzel]

There was another story recently of a woman who heard noises from downstairs.



She woke her husband and they went down to investigate together. They found nothing though so hubby went back to bed, whilst the wife decided to have a drink of water from the bathroom before returning to bed.



Then she found the burglar hiding behind the bathroom door!

 

[Howard]

Whomever the investigating policeman/woman was, he's/she's going to find himself/herself in trouble methinks and quite rightly so.



This could have turned out to be a very serious incident.

 

[Evil Eye]

That guy's going to cut the legs off his bed