Man comes face-to-face with Asian gold burglar as he ransacks Ilford home

It was only when the intruder bolted down the stairs that he realised his house was being burgled.

He chased after the man, and that was when he saw his parents’ bedroom door had been crow-barred open and all their possessions had been picked over.

Syed, of Gloucester Gardens, Ilford, said: “It’s happening a lot in Ilford now, we feel like we have been targeted. My family were targeted because of the Asian gold as that’s all that was taken.”

Laptops, games consoles, iPads and car keys were all in sight.

Syed said: “They knew what they were doing. It’s the sentimental value of the things and knowing that we have been watched and someone was following our actions. They came for one thing only.”

A week before the burglary the family had received strange phone calls at random times for people who did not live in the house.

Syed said: “The number was always withheld. We never really thought anything about it.”

On the day of the burglary he was in his bedroom when he heard the doorbell. He didnot realise his family had gone out so did not go downstairs to open it. He said: “My bedroom door was kicked open and I saw this guy looking into my eyes, like really looking at me. I thought he was the boiler guy. Then I started shouting and all of a sudden he started running down the stairs.”

Syed chased the man down from the second to the first floor which is where his parents’ bedroom is.

All his parents’ possessions had been sorted out and the family’s safe, containing three generations’ worth of high carat Asian gold, had been stolen.

The men made off with about £15,000 of jewellery and £4,000 in cash on Tuesday of last week.Syed said: “My mum and dad’s door was broken open and I noticed that the safe was gone and everything was all over the place. I almost fainted. I ran outside and saw a dark coloured Audi A3 wheel-spinning off.”