Ballsy John Forty’s residents chase brazen burglar back to her own flat

Two baffled flatmates chased a woman back to her own home after they found her openly raiding their flat.

Brave Carly and Catrin were relaxing at home when they heard the brazen burglar rummaging around in their hall on Thursday night.

Accountancy third year Catrin Jones, 21, said: “We were just chatting about last night when we heard a noise outside in the hall, so we opened the door and there was a woman going in to our shower room.”

The mystery woman, who was clutching a “bag for life” packed with their stuff then bizarrely joked: “Oh, sorry I’ve not put the light on!” before walking into another section of the flat.

Swag Bag

Business fourth year Carly Hall, 21, said: “Our first reaction was to burst out laughing because we didn’t know what was going on, it was so bizarre.

“And then I just realised well actually let’s stop laughing, we’ve got a situation here.”

The flatmates locked their room doors and exited the flat before calling porters for help. After calling porters at John Forty’s and ASH with no answer, the pair finally got through to someone at Willow Court, who explained they’ll try and radio the nearest porter to assist them.

Catrin explained: “We just wanted to get out the flat as soon as possible because we didn’t know how dangerous she was, she could have had a knife.”

The scene of the crime

At this point the burglar, who was in her “mid-to-late thirties”, attempted to leave the flat. Catrin said: “She had a bag for life full of our stuff, she basically came out the door and tried to walk past us so we stopped her and said “You can’t be taking that.”

“We grabbed the bag of stuff off of her but noticed she had a handbag full of stuff as well, and when we asked her to show us her handbag she refused saying she’ll return it later as she walked off. So I phoned the police and started following her in my pyjamas as she tried to leave.”

Carly added: “At the same time I couldn’t let my friend follow this dangerous woman on her own, so I started chasing her with my wee shoes on as well in the ice.

“We ended up following her along the road towards Cornton to her flat, still on the phone to the police. Eventually the police said they got our location and were able to come down.”

Friends Catrin and Carly chased their burglar down the street

The two are just the latest victims of a series of burglaries at off campus Uni residences.

Thinking back on the incident Carly said: “We were very fortunate, the situation could have been a lot more dangerous.”

The pair had the impression that they discovered their burglar “just in time” and startled her, as she had mostly just taken a random assortment of items including food, alcohol and toiletries.

It is thought the burglar accessed their flat through a broken front door, which despite being reported more than once since November had still not been fixed.

The burglar easily accessed the flat through a broken front door

Catrin said: “The main thing is, we’ve complained about it and its not been fixed. We complained twice, firstly around the end of november.

“I’ve spoken to other people at John Forty’s who have had broken windows and its still not been fixed.”

Flatmate Carly added: “To be fair, the porters fixed the door the following day, and they’ve been very apologetic since coming to check in on us.

“The main thing we want to get across is if anyone has any broken windows or doors or faults then just go and get it fixed.”

Now the door has been fixed the two are hoping porters will be quicker to respond to repairs in future