Masked men were caught on a doorbell camera attempting to break into a house in Leeds.
Ash, who didn't want his last name published, lives in Birkdale Green, Alwoodley and was walking out of a work meeting when he got a notification on his phone alerting him that someone was at his front door. When he opened the notification, he watched on in horror as a group of men wearing face masks and beanie hats pulled down attempted to enter his home at 4.30pm today in broad daylight (March 27).
No one was at home as his wife and daughter had left to go for a walk in the park. The "stomach churning" footage shows one of the men ringing the doorbell and waiting to see if anyone is in.
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Moments later, three men with their faces covered can be seen sneaking into the man's back garden and then leaving.. Ash called the police straight away. He's said the group must have seen the padlock on his extension door in his back garden and then left.
He says the gang then climbed over his fence and broke down his neighbour's backdoor. He's added that children were in at the time and began screaming, so the burglars fled from the scene.
Ash said: "It's stomach churning. It makes me feel angry, the fact that someone would just attempt that, especially at 4.30 in the afternoon. I got a bit of adrenaline rush from watching it.
"You feel kind of shook up by the whole thing, that somebody would even try that. It's scary to think that gangs are operating at that time of the day when your family could be around.
"We've all become desensitised to seeing people wearing Covid masks now, you just see it as the norm. You think they might have Covid or they're vulnerable. Plus, a lot of people wear them just to go to the door now incase someone is vulnerable.
"I work in the care indusry and a lot of places I go into, you put a mask on and nobody thinks about it these days. The fact is they're using them as a way of disguising themselves to get around CCTV and they're obviously aware people have doorbells with cameras now."
Ash has said there was a large police presence in Alwoodley following the incident with sightings of police helicopters in the air.
West Yorkshire Police have been asked for a comment as to whether the incident is linked.
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