Man's Facebook plea during Durham burglary prompts 999 call

Officers were sent to the property during the early hours after the plea was posted on Facebook

A man whose home was being burgled pleaded on a local Facebook group for someone to call the police.

The victim was woken up by the sounds of two men rummaging around his belongings earlier this week.

Not wanting to disturb them, he stayed silent, hid under bed covers and wrote a post including his address which was spotted by someone who called 999.

Durham police officers reached the man's home within minutes but the suspects had already fled.

Two men were arrested several hours later after Durham City neighbourhood officers saw them with what looked like some of the man's stolen items.

Police said the man had pretended to be asleep during the burglary, at about 03:45 BST, and as the burglars searched for valuables in the hallway, the victim took to a local Facebook group in the hope of finding help.

'Without second thought'

He wrote a short post about what was happening, where he lived, and included a request for someone to call the police.

The message was spotted and police were called, with officers deployed within six minutes.

"Thank you to the member of the public who took the Facebook post seriously and called it in without a second thought," a spokesperson said.

"Their actions meant we were able to support the victim as quickly as possible."

Police advised anyone unable to speak in an emergency to call 999 and press 55 when prompted so the call handler knows help is required and can trace a location.