Thieves force their way into woman's house as she sleeps

Two men forced their way into the house of an 82-year-old old grandmother while she was asleep this morning and robbed her of her cash and jewellery.

The daring incident took place at about 6 a.m. in Lapsi Street, St Julians, when the two men levered open the front door. They went upstairs, grabbed the woman to prevent her screaming, and told her Oqghod kwieta, oqghod kwieta. They then demanded cash.

They are thought to have escaped with several hundred euros, as well as the woman's jewellery.

The woman, although shocked, was not injured. She was alone in the house at the time.

It is thought that a third man had been waiting for the men in a getaway car.

The case was the second this week where a woman was robbed at home.

'I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE'

Antonia Sciberras, Wednesday's victim, in comments given to The Times today, said she feared the worst when the three burglars left her trussed and gagged on the floor before getting away with the €25,000 in cash, leaving her and her farmer brother penniless.

“I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t breathe and I was alone and terrified,” the 61-year-old, still shaky from her ordeal, recounted.

She was found nearly two hours later, bound, scratched and bruised by her 75-year-old brother Giovanni, who got the shock of his life when he returned to their Żebbuġ home after a day out in his fields.

Earlier, at about 3.45 p.m., Ms Sciberras heard the doorbell ring but didn’t answer immediately. “Before opening the door I looked through the peephole and saw three men standing outside,” she said. She heard one of the men talking on his mobile phone, telling someone on the other end that “she didn’t open for us”.

“I don’t know who he was speaking to but I shouted through the door ‘coming, coming’ and opened up.”

The three men, wearing sunglasses and green reflective safety jackets, stepped into the house and closed the door behind them. “They told me they had come to read the meter.” She told them where it was, behind the front door and, on their request, went to fetch a ladder. They also asked her to move a sulkie propped up next to the front door because it was blocking their way. When she turned to move it, the three men sprung into action.

“One of them was hovering around me. He grabbed my waist and shouted ‘now! now!’ He covered my mouth and told me not to shout or else I’d get hurt,” Ms Sciberras recounted.

Shocked and frightened, she started screaming and begging the men not to kill her while they dragged her into the living room. They tied her hands and feet with masking tape and covered her mouth with a towel, securing it with more masking tape. “It hurt. I was in a lot of pain.”

They then started asking her a lot of questions about her brother. “They wanted to know where he was and at what time would he be coming home. They were telling me: It’s better if we speak to him.”

While Mr Sciberras was in the fields, the three intruders searched his bedroom and found two large glass jars, often used to store sweets, stuffed with cash.

With what the brother and sister calculate to be about €25,000 in hand, the men walked out of the front door and closed it behind them, leaving Ms Sciberras helpless and petrified.

At 5.30 p.m., Mr Sciberras walked into the house and found his sister lying on the floor. “I thought she was dead. She was covered in tape and lying still.”

He quickly removed the towel covering her face and realised she was alive when she started screaming. “I was relieved. I started cutting through the tape on her hands and feet but there was so much of it; it took me ages.”

Briefly, his sister told him they had been robbed. “I was angry. I went to my room and realised they took everything.”

Mr Sciberras, a cancer survivor, kept the money at home to pay his bills and also to ensure his sister would be financially independent in case he died.

“They took everything. I don’t even have money to buy a coffee,” he said.