A great-gran has shared her terror after a frenzied knifeman tried to break into her house - leaving her “petrified”. Debbie Quinn and her husband Peter have been left “in shock” after the traumatising incident that saw two individuals try to force their way into their family home through the back door.
The 62-year-old claimed one of the suspects shouted “open that f****** door or I’ll stab you” as they tried to get a knife through the gap in the door. Debbie, from Middlesbrough, said the roughly 10-minute ordeal left her and Peter, 65, who is recovering from cancer, terrified in their own home.
The couple, who have lived there for 22 years, say they had “never” experienced anything similar to the attack on their home. Recalling the event, which happened at around 11pm on Monday evening, Debbie said: “I was sat in the back garden on the phone and my little dog was running around.
“I went back into the house and I stood near the back door. The next thing we heard was this great big bang.
“It was like somebody was booting the alley gate. Within a couple of seconds, the back gate flew open and all we saw was this hand coming in the door with a knife in it. We tried to slam the door. He said: “open that f****** door or I’ll stab you.’”
The duo got behind the door and tried to close it fully as the man tried to put his hand through the gap, report Teesside Live. Debbie explained: “They must have thought: ‘hang on, we’re not going to get in there.’ He got his arm out, and we slammed the door and locked it.”
The mum-of-four explained that at one point she was on the floor shouting “phone the police” and that she was so frightened by the knifeman that she “wet herself.” She added: “I was still sitting on the floor and my husband ran through to the front of the house and saw them running across the road and around the corner.”
Debbie added that she currently looks after Peter, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2013 and is “not in the best of health as it is” as he gets over his illness. She added: “We’ve never had anything like this before. Never.”
The couple didn’t catch a glimpse of the faces of the suspects, but said they believed they were in their twenties, with one of them carrying what Debbie described as a “carving knife.” The couple, who have 16 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, is still “in shock” and trying to understand why the attempted break-in happened to them.
She said: “I’m on edge, I’m stressed out, I feel myself watching all the time and checking the doors are locked. I think to myself: ‘Why us?’ We keep ourselves to ourselves.”
In a post on Facebook, Debbie’s son Delboy Mount described how the incident left his mum “shaking” after the man tried to “stab her through the gap of the door.” He said: “My mum and dad [did]their best to keep him out, he was trying to slash her saying he will kill her.”
A Cleveland Police spokeswoman said: “Police received a call from a third party at 11.07pm reporting a male in possession of a knife was attempting to enter an address on Pallister Avenue. The caller said a woman was inside the address at the time.
“While officers were attending we received another call at 11.20pm from a man reporting two men in possession of knives were in Pallister Avenue. Officers including the Dog Support Section conducted area searches however the suspect or suspects were not located at this time.
“We are in the process of obtaining further details around the circumstances and descriptions of any suspect/s so that enquiries may continue.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
READ NEXT:
- Dad fights off trio armed with sledgehammer and knife after they smashed into family home
- Cops hunt men who attacked Scots mum at her home before running off when child started screaming
- Confused drugs lout attacked Scots family after trying to enter wrong house
- Scots family left "terrified" after thugs attack property three times in 16 days
