‘We need to find him and bring him into custody’ – Burglar breaks in to elderly Sheffield woman’s home armed with knife

Shortly after 6.30am on Tuesday morning (January 29), a man wearing a baseball cap or black woolly hat and a black scarf covering most of his face broke into a house on Greenfield Road in Meadowhead.

When the 80-year-old victim – who was upstairs at the time – raised the alarm with her neighbours, the man is said to have threatened her with a knife before escaping empty handed in a stolen car which he later abandoned on Gervase Avenue in nearby Lowedges.

Detective Constable Dean Craik said the woman was uninjured but had understandably been left incredibly distressed by what happened.

He said: “This man was brazen in his actions, entering the woman’s home first thing in the morning and continuing to ransack her home when he was disturbed by her. We need to find him and bring him into custody. 

“The man is described as wearing a tight black puffa jacket, white, around 5ft 10ins tall and of medium build.

“He was travelling in a black Mercedes, thought to have been stolen from the Beauchief/Greenhill area between 25-29 January.

“People may have been getting ready for work at that time, or getting ready to take their children to school – did you see anything? Could you have dash cam footage, which shows the offender in the area?

“If you can help, or if you saw or heard anything suspicious, please call 101 quoting incident number 181 of 29 January 2019. You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.”