Plea for security bars after Kentish Town burglary ordeal
Pensioner wakes to find intruder in her bedroom
Published: 7th April, 2011
by JAMIE WELHAM
A PENSIONER who chased off a burglar she woke to find in her bedroom has criticised the TownâHall for refusing to fit security bars to her flat.
Joan Summers, 77, says she has been too frightened to sleep since the break-in – the fourth since 2005.
The pensioner, who lives with her daughter in a ground-floor flat in Kentish Town, said she woke to see a masked intruder standing in the doorway of her bedroom in the early hours of Saturday.
He snatched her handbag but fled when the retired cleaner shouted at him.
Ms Summers and her daughter say they feel ignored by the Town Hall after repeatedly asking for someone to fit security bars to the windows of the flat in Prince of Wales Road.
They claim they were told it was “too expensive” and a fire hazard, despite having a front and back door.
“It just feels like they don’t care about us,” Ms Summers said. “We’ve been burgled four times now. I haven’t slept since. I’ve just been sitting up in my chair in the kitchen.”
She added: “I was half asleep when he came in, but I jumped up. I saw his eyes. He must have been on drugs. He took my handbag, which was by the door and just stared at me. I jumped up and shouted: ‘Get out, get out’ and he ran off. It was very frightening.”
Ms Summers’ daughter Jean, 56, said: “It’s just not secure here. All of our neighbours have them [security bars] and we don’t know why we can’t.”
The Town Hall said it would refit the smashed window but could not attach bars. It is understood the council considers them a fire hazard, but many tenants breach tenancy agreements by fitting bars because they feel so unsafe.
A Camden Council spokeswoman said: “Following a phone call from Ms Summers to say she had been broken into, Camden carpenters visited her home as an emergency over the weekend and boarded up the bathroom window to make her home secure.
“We have been in regular contact with Ms Summers’ daughter about this matter and the window is due to be re-glazed within the next five days.
She added: “Camden are not able to assist residents with requests to fit security bars to windows as it is outside our housing repairs policy.”