Heanor pensioner tricked in distraction burglary spree

Police say the incident, which happened on Thursday, December 9, at around 8.10pm on Lockton Avenue, could be linked to three other distraction burglaries on the same day, including two in Ilkeston. A third was in Ockbrook near Derby.

In Heanor, the 85-year-old woman was approached by men claiming they had come to fix a gas leak. While one man distracted her the others searched the house upstairs, said police.

But the tricksters were interrupted when the woman’s 60-year-old son came home and chased them out of the house. The crooks are described as white and in their teens.

Police said an 89-year-old woman answered her door on Dallimore Road in Kirk Hallam, Ilkeston, to a man claiming to be working on pipes in the area at about 5.45pm that day.

She refused to let him in and when her son visited later he discovered a window had been forced and the house searched, but nothing had been stolen. Police also said an 82-year-old woman let a man into her home in Inglefield Road, Ilkeston, at about 5.55pm. He asked her to run her kitchen taps while another man, described as about 4ft 11ins tall, waited outside. While she was distracted the other man, who was about 6ft, searched the house but nothing was stolen.

A police spokeswoman said: “We are warning people not to let strangers into their homes. Legitimate workers will happily return at a later date.”