A burglary

SIR – I would like to thank Philip Johnston for his article (“The streets have become a shrine to the decline in police numbers”, Comment, April 11). My pensioner husband and I were the victims of a burglary in 2016.

I woke at 2am, to see torchlight coming down the corridor just outside my bedroom – reflected in my mirror.

My husband, aged 79, terminally ill with cancer, was sleeping downstairs. I shouted his name over and over, put on all the lights and rushed downstairs – terrified by what I might encounter.

My husband seemed all right, thank God. Protected by his deafness, he appeared unharmed and remained asleep. Shaking uncontrollably, I phoned the police. They stayed on the phone to reassure me – for which I was so grateful – and came quickly.

Did they frighten the burglars away? No. While the police searched to see if anyone was still in the house, they were outside, calmly moving some items nearer to their getaway car.

What did the police do? They gave me a crime number and a “victim support” number. The detective who visited said cheerily: “If burglars want to get in, they will. We will leaflet your neighbours, to see if anyone heard anything. But we can’t do any more.”

A large house nearby had just been turned into a halfway house for 16-year-olds leaving care. Low-level crime – drug needles and attempted break-ins to cars and property – had suddenly increased.

Two women PCS came to see me a couple of weeks later, and when I asked whether they were looking at the residents of this house as a possible cause, I was told off. These young people were “vulnerable”.

“Excuse me,” I replied, “we pensioners – one terminally ill – are we not also ‘vulnerable’?”

There was silence. Obviously not. Burglary is not just about the loss of material possessions. It is about fear of what the burglars will do – that they will come again. Your home – your place of security – is no longer safe.

I cannot adequately express my feelings about Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, and Theresa May, the Prime Minister, who behave more like senior social workers (or Church of England ministers) than Secretaries of State who should understand that they have responsibilities to the citizens of their country beyond airily cutting budgets and letting someone else work out how to deal with the consequences.

So thank you again. We need the help of the media, if our political class is so out of touch with the reality of life in Britain today.

Sevenoaks, Kent