FOUR HERO BOYS SAVE BARMAN FROM BEING BURGLED

BARMAN Neil Selman wants to track down four boys who stopped him falling victim to burglars.

The 53-year-old was working at Victoria Lounge Bar, in Hanley, last weekend when he realised he had left his keys in the front door of his Middleport home.

But Neil need not have worried because the boys had noticed the oversight and posted the keys through his letterbox.

Now he wants to thank them for their efforts.

Neil had started his shift at 6pm on Saturday, October 9. It was 1.30am the following morning – courtesy of his video doorbell – when he realised he did not have his keys. He didn’t get back inside his house until 7.50am.

Neil said: “I saw these four young lads between 13 and 16 who had walked past and rang the bell. I hadn’t heard the ring on my phone. They took the keys out of the lock and pushed them through the letterbox.

“My mum lives with me. She is 77 and is deaf and she was in the house, so you could imagine what could’ve happened if somebody had broken in. I was quite worried.

“I looked at the video, but I was in the reception room at the time so it was quite noisy, and to me it was just four lads messing with the bell. It was only when I got home that the front door was locked.

“I looked at the video again and I heard this lad saying ‘somebody has left their keys in the door’. The other one says ‘make sure it’s closed’. Another young lad said ‘push them through the letterbox’.

“I am really relieved. They were just walking past when they noticed the keys. Somebody could have taken the keys and got into my house anytime they wanted to.”

Neil slept in his car until his mum woke up on Sunday morning.

He added: “It was a hardship, but not something I wouldn’t do again in the circumstances.

“An Asian gentleman had knocked on the window at around 4am and I explained to him what had happened. He went on his way and came back with a bottle of water and a bag of crisps for me. That’s something else that renewed my faith in humanity. I’d like to personally meet the four young lads to let them know how appreciated it was. I can’t thank them enough.”