CLEANER USED WASHING UP BOWL TO HIT BURGLAR

She was about to open pub when raider came downstairs

CLEANER Mandy Arrowsmith has told how she used a washing up bowl to batter a burglar who broke into a pub.

The brave 59-year-old also wrestled with the intruder before he eventually fled with a bag of cash.

She had just finished cleaning and was getting ready to open up when she confronted the man as he came down the stairs from the private living quarters at the Hop Pole in Crewe.

Mandy, who also works behind the bar, ‘more or less walked into the burglar’ shortly before 12.50pm on December 5.

She said: “I was holding the bowl and then the door opened by the flat and he was there.

“I said ‘who are you? What are you doing?’ and he spoke in a foreign language. Then I spotted the bag and I knew it was the bag with the money, so I said ‘give me the bag’ and he charged past me and out to the kitchen.

“I had shut the kitchen door, so he had to stop to open it, and I just hit him with the bowl.

“He slipped over so I jumped on him and we were fighting on the ground. He managed to get up, because he was stronger than me, and got away.”

Mandy, who was in the Willaston Road pub on her own at the time, said she wouldn’t describe herself as a brave person, but acted without thinking.

It was only later that day she realised what she had done and the shock set in.

She said: “I thought they [the pub landlords] work so hard for their money, why should he have it?”

Hop Pole landlady Jackie Halden said she couldn’t believe how brave Mandy, who is also her sister-in-law, had been, but admitted to telling her off.

Jackie said: “I told her she should have left it, he could have had a knife or anything.”

Police are now appealing for anyone with information about the burglary to get in touch.

The suspect was around 5ft 9in with an average to stocky build and around 30 years old.

He was wearing a navy blue hooded jacket, denim bottoms and a navy blue woollen hat with two grey stripes.

A Cheshire Police spokesman said: “At 12.50pm on Wednesday, December 5, officers were called to reports of a burglary at a pub in Wistaston Road, Crewe.

“An unknown man entered the private living quarters within the building and stole a quantity of cash.” ■ Anyone with information is asked to call 101.