A dad says he woke up to 'panicked screams' as four masked men took his daughters hostage and threatened to kill his son before driving off with his car. Mohammed Ali, from Oldham, has spoken out after robbers broke into his home with machetes, a meat cleaver and a brick.
The 39-year-old says his 'family is broken' following the terrifying ordeal. Police are continuing to investigate the incident and are urging anyone with information to come forward.
Lorry driver Mohammed first saw two of the intruders on the stairs of his home. He says another of the intruders held a knife against the throats of his daughters, aged seven and 12, in the living room.
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When his son emerged from his upstairs bedroom seconds later, one of the men yelled 'kill him, kill him' before advancing towards the 18-year-old. Mohammed says he pushed his son back into his bedroom and ran to a bathroom, where they took refuge while the robbers hacked at the doors with their machetes.
After five minutes, the brutes finally fled the property and stole his white Seat Leon car from his driveway when they found his keys. Mohammed, who didn’t know why his home was targeted, said he felt like he’d 'failed' his family.
He said: “My daughter said one of them had a knife and he was saying, ‘It’s all your dad’s fault, be f****** quiet,’ and was putting a knife to her neck. They all had gloves and everything, but you could see their eyes through the balaclava - and their voice, I could never forget it.
“I’ve not slept since. My family is broken. My kids wouldn’t come home. It was my daughter’s birthday yesterday, and literally everything is spoiled and I don’t know what to do or what to say to them. I feel like I’ve failed them.”
Mohammed said he'd gone to bed at 9.30 pm last Tuesday, May 9 - leaving his youngest son, who is five, and two daughters watching the TV. His make-up artist wife Michelle Dunkley, 40, had forgotten her keys when she left the house for work in the evening so he’d unlocked the door before heading upstairs.
But at 11 pm, he heard one of his daughters utter a high-pitched scream before finding two masked men on the stairs holding metre-long machetes. He said: “It wasn’t a scream where the kids were fighting. This was a panicked scream, a worried scream. I knew as a parent this was not normal.
“As I was trying to get down the stairs, I was faced by three guys in balaclavas. Two were on the stairs, one at the bottom, and one had my kids downstairs.
“I started screaming: “Get out! Get out!”. They started swearing at me. My son had the room next to the stairs, and when he came out, they said: “Kill him! kill him!”
“I pushed him into his room and closed the door, and they started coming up the stairs. I went to the bathroom, which was right behind me.
"I was just screaming, 'make sure they don’t get to you'. They started hacking at the doors with the machetes, and while they were hacking it, the third guy was ransacking my house.”
Mohammed said he spent a terrifying five minutes holding the door shut, hoping the men wouldn’t break through. And when he finally realised they had made their way down the stairs, he heard the rev of his car engine and realised they were trying to steal his car.
He added: “I was still half asleep. I was dazed and in a panic and I didn’t know if they’d got my son or my other kids downstairs. Once my car started and they were driving off, I gave chase then went inside and saw my kids were alright.”
Mohammed said his children were thankfully unharmed despite their trauma, and besides his vehicle, the men only took a box of his daughter's miniature dolls. But after he shared footage of the robbery on social media, he said another family in Rochdale reported the same gang had attacked them just an hour later.
The disturbed dad said he had reported the attack to Greater Manchester Police but didn’t think they were taking the incident seriously. He said: “It’s absolutely disgraceful. I left it with the police. But it’s like they’re not bothered.
“They will only take action when someone is seriously hurt or dead but I don’t want that on my conscious.” GMP says its officers responded to reports of an aggravated burglary on Fir Tree Avenue, Oldham, last Tuesday night and the force is urging any witnesses to come forward.
Detective Inspector Andrew Fink, of GMP's Oldham Division, said: "This was a shocking incident in which a family were threatened in their own homes. We have zero tolerance for these sort of shocking acts and we are determined to bring those responsible for this crime to justice.
"Our officers are working hard to establish all of the leads available to them, and any information that the public may have would be of great assistance to their enquiries. I would urge anyone with CCTV, dashcam, or doorbell footage to please get in touch. No matter how small you think it is, it could be hugely beneficial.”
Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 0161 856 8962 quoting log number 4272 of May 9, 2023. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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