[ad_1]
Hamish McKenzie thought his daughter was looking for her phone when she walked into her classroom shortly after 3 a.m.
Instead, he came face to face with a domestic intruder.
McKenzie’s intervention caused the man to flee, but the incident left McKenzie, his wife, and their two daughters, ages 11 and 9, with a surreal feeling, which they compared to waking up after the Canterbury earthquakes.
The alleged thief is believed to have entered the family home in Halswell, Christchurch, early Friday morning, reached through the cat’s flap and unlocked a window, then opened the sliding door.
READ MORE:
* Man robbing small house in Christchurch accidentally shot merchant in the neck
* The alleged robbery victim was buying silence, defense says
But while he was rummaging inside, McKenzie had gotten up to go to the bathroom.
He saw a glow from the living room when he got back to bed, but guessed it was the backlight of a computer screen.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
At around 3 a.m. on Friday, Hamish McKenzie approached a meter from a man trying to rob his home.
Instead of going back to sleep, he sat on the bed flipping through Facebook on his phone, before hearing a creak from the kitchen.
He said he thought it might be one of his two cats trying to get into some thawing and went to take a look.
McKenzie’s bedroom leads to the living room, and when he got there, he saw a person going through his wife’s purse with a flashlight. He assumed it was one of his daughters looking for his phone.
McKenzie leaned closer to the figure and saw that it was a hooded man with a black mask covering his nose and mouth.
He yelled “what the hell are you doing?” He said.
The thief “screamed” and ran across the room, jumping over furniture and slamming a clothesline, before running out the sliding door he opened earlier.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Hamish McKenzie said the burglar appeared to enter his home by pushing a stick of some kind through a cat hatch to open a window latch and then reached through the window to open a sliding door.
McKenzie watched him jump the back fence into a large empty section.
The thief had not taken anything, but had moved a jar of coins from one of his daughter’s bedrooms, McKenzie said.
“It’s pretty scary that he was in our children’s rooms and seen them sleeping,” said Eboney McKenzie.
In the morning, the McKenzie family discovered that a neighbor was missing money, headphones and a UE boom speaker.
Hamish McKenzie said he had now permanently glued the latches on the window where the burglar entered.
The family urged people to check their own windows and hatches to make sure they were secure.
A police spokeswoman confirmed that they responded to the robbery at 3.47 am, but had not found the thief.
Anyone with information can call 105 quoting the case number 200911/8484.
