Yahoo News Brazen burglar 'trying doors' in Hull street falls into hedge as he is confronted by victims
A homeless and drugged-up burglar with a huge list of 117 previous offences carried out brazen raids on houses, including by sneakily ringing the door bell and pretending to offer his services for gardening.
But he was foiled after a no-nonsense occupier ran after him and then hastily followed him in his car and confronted him in the street. A handbag that the intruder had stolen from the house was recovered, Hull Crown Court heard.
Ahmed Gaddafi, 47, formerly of Coltman Street, Hull, but recently of no fixed address, admitted two offences of burglary and others of attempted burglary and interfering with a vehicle.
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Billy Torbett, prosecuting, said that a woman telephoned the police at 7.52pm on April 22 after receiving a notification from her ring doorbell that someone was at her front door while she was away from her home in Cottingham Road, Hull.
She answered the notification and a man asked her: "Do you need any gardening doing?" before offering his services for £50.
The woman declined the offer and she watched the man walk to the end of the drive. But she spotted the sleeve of another man, who was still at her front door at 8.04pm. She telephoned her brother, who went to the house straight away and found that the front door was open.
"The victim arrived home at 8.58pm and noticed that the double doors within the address were open, the bedroom lights were on and there were footprints on the carpet in the office," said Mr Torbett.
Jewellery of great sentimental value, given to the woman by her late mother, had been taken as well as other more expensive jewellery and a tablet. The sentimental jewellery was recovered but the more expensive items were not.
An attempted burglary took place at about 9pm the same day in Hall Road, Hull, while a couple were in bed. They heard a doorbell chime and a man was seen trying the handle and boot of the woman's Peugeot 3008 car but it was locked.
The couple got into the car and found the man in Leyburn Avenue. He tried to run off but fell into a hedgerow. He removed his hood and took his cap off.
A neighbour got out of a vehicle and asked the man if he had been trying doors as this same man had broken into their house. He was detained and the police later arrested him.
The earlier burglary happened at 8pm that day at another house in Hall Road where a man, his wife and his daughter were all inside. The wife suddenly screamed and shouted her husband's name.
Gaddafi was spotted running out of the front door with a handbag. The couple ran after him.
The husband then followed Gaddafi by car to Leyburn Avenue where he asked him if he was the man who had been seen inside the house. Gaddafi replied: "Yerr, it was me. I'm not really a bad person." He was under the influence of drugs. The handbag was recovered.
Gaddafi made no comment to questions during police interview. He had convictions for 117 previous offences, 73 of them for theft or similar between 1993 and this year, including a series of at least 13 burglaries.
Stephen Robinson, mitigating, said that Gaddafi had been homeless for the past two years and he had been given a number of short prison sentences. "Class A drugs have been a very significant problem for this defendant in the past," said Mr Robinson.
"On this occasion, he was taking Valium, perhaps to deal with the reality of his situation being homeless. He was sleeping on the street.
"The motivation behind these offences was to try to get some money together to try to help his situation. He was hoping he could. The police turned up and he was glad they had and that he would be able to get back to custody."
Gaddafi had been giving negative drug tests while in custody on remand at Lincoln Prison. He had a job in the kitchen there.
"He said to me that he is getting too old for this," added Mr Robinson. "He is in danger of wasting what is left of his life, having wasted so much already."
Gaddafi was jailed for two years and nine months.
