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Edgware burglars ask victim for help to escape
12:30pm Friday 19th June 2009
BUNGLING burglars were bold enough to ask their victim to help rescue their car from a ditch after they botched their get-away.
Vil Valkass, 52, was woken when his wife reported two men walking around their front garden in Edgwarebury Lane, Edgware, on Sunday morning.
He went outside to speak to the men, who asked if they could use Mr Valkass' tractor to pull their white Ford Mondao from a ditch.
But Mr Valkass' suspicions were raised when he noticed the tax disc was out of date and saw the car had reversed into some fencing, demolishing the posts.
He told the men he was going to collect the tractor, but on the way back to the house noticed his and his neighbours' sheds had been broken into, and documents had been sprawled across the inside of his wife's car.
He called the police while the two men waited at the front of the house.
“I can't believe they had the bare-faced cheek to ask me to help them get away,” said Mr Valkass.
“I thought if I helped them out they were just going to drive off and I wouldn't see them again.
“When my wife woke up to get my four-year-old a drink at 5am, they must have seen the light come on and gone back to the car to try and get away. My son was a hero for waking up really.”
Mr Valkass said keys, cash and bank cards had been taken and only some of it has been recovered. He also claims the damage to the fencing and driveways caused by the car crash may cost up to £3,000 to repair, although he was just glad they did not manage to get into the house.
“They had tried to get in but the back door handle had broken,” he said.
“They had made a serious effort to get in but I am relieved they couldn't. Who knows what could have happened.
“They seemed under the influence of drink and drugs, and I was worried about what they could have done to my family.”
Barnet police confirmed there had been an incident at the address and said two men were arrested at the scene for driving offences and burglary.
They have both been bailed to return to a north London police station on August 10 pending further enquiries.
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