A family have been left terrified after an armed gang smashed into their Salford home whilst their young children were sleeping.
A group of three masked men, armed with a sledgehammer, broke into the family home in Monton, Eccles, on Sunday evening. Shocking CCTV footage from the house on Granville Street shows the group forcing their way in after throwing a large brick through a back window and running inside with a sledgehammer.
The dad, who agreed to speak with the Manchester Evening News anonymously, claimed the group then grabbed a knife from the kitchen. He says the trio then headed up towards the stairs.
He said: “We heard a bang where they’d thrown a big brick and it’d smashed the glass so they got in. They had a sledgehammer and one took a knife from our kitchen drawers.
"I was upstairs in the bathroom and I rushed out and saw the guys trying to come upstairs so I just jumped on top of him and kicked him in the shoulder. He pulled me down from my legs and I somehow managed to jump up and my wife handed me a baseball bat as our neighbours came and knocked at the door.
"They [the robbers] got scared I guess and left. It was very terrifying but we’re ok, I just have a few bruises so it could have been worse.”
Although the family were able to escape without any major injuries, the family’s young daughter has been terrified ever since.
Two men spotted in garden hours before attack
The dad said that earlier that evening, he had an an alert from his security system display on his phone just after 9pm, while he was sat in hospital with his critically-ill son, who is currently undergoing treatment for leukaemia. The security system showed two men wandering around the back garden of his family home.
He said he quickly called his wife, who was at home with their two children and his mother-in-law, who then headed downstairs and spooked the men into leaving. He returned home and just a couple of hours later, shortly before 11pm, the three men entered the back garden and broke in.
The couple had decided to buy a baseball bat in case they needed to defend themselves after one of their neighbours had their house broken into and their car stolen a few months ago. The man added: “Earlier last night, around 9pm, these two guys came through the back alley and into the back garden and I called her and she shouted at them and they left.
“I wasn’t getting good feelings at the hospital, so I decided to leave my son with the nurses in critical care and came home. Our neighbours were broken into a few months ago, so we bought a baseball bat in case something happened.
"The whole street is just a bit scared, in the last 18 months about four houses have had something similar. We had the worst because we had to fight them but this is something I’ve never had in my life.”
He said officers from GMP have been to the house with a sniffer dog, but were unable to locate any of the men who were involved from their scent. A spokesperson for the force said: “Officers were called to a report of an aggravated burglary at an address on Granville Street in Eccles just before 11pm yesterday, March 27. Three males broke into an address armed with weapons and grabbed a male in the property.
"Thankfully, no one was injured. They made off from the scene empty-handed. An investigation is on-going and detectives are following up a number of lines of enquiry.
"Anyone with information or anyone who may have seen anything is asked to report it online at www.gmp.police.uk. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111." Anyone with information about the break in can pass details onto the police using the reference number 06FF/0008473/22.
