Agony of a last call

AFTER burglars broke into 77-year-old pensioner Maureen Whale’s home to steal her handbag, she phoned 999.

The terrified former nurse described the intruders not as villains, but as ‘two young men’.

She started struggling for breath as a result of the ordeal and apologised, saying: ‘I can’t talk, I’m sorry.’

They were her last words before she collapsed and died.

What makes this tragic story so much more upsetting is the contrast between the polite way this considerate elderly woman talked to 999 operators even as she was frightened out of her skin — and the monstrous behaviour of the young thugs who robbed her for the few pounds in her handbag.