A father today told of his terror when a burglar lunged at him with a screwdriver.
Peter Catton, 59, was woken up by someone walking around his house in Southend in the early hours and assumed it was his 21-year-old son, Phil.
He went to investigate, but came across a man searching his study. He shouted at him to leave.
Mr Catton said: "I was shocked when I realised it wasn't my son. It was very frightening.
"I was blocking his path and then I realised he had what looked like a knife, but was probably a screwdriver and he was waving it at me. I backed off to the door and then he lunged at me. I thought he was going to stab me but he just pushed me to the floor and ran out."
Undeterred, Mr Catton, who suffered a heart attack two years ago, got up and ran after the man but couldn't catch up with him.
His wife called the police who were on the scene within minutes with sniffer dogs, but the burglar had already fled the scene.
The thief made off with a Sony camcorder, a Canon A80 digital camera and a Konica digital camera, as well as 18 DVDs.
Published Wednesday August 18, 2004
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