Got news? Tell us!
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting gazette news to 80360, or email us i-witness@nqe.com »
North Essex: Owner thanks her guardian Angel for burglary warning
7:00am Monday 12th January 2009
Comments (1)A PINT-SIZED pooch foiled a burglar by waking her deaf owner as she slept through a raid.
Student April Porter was asleep when a crook targeted her Colchester home in the early hours of the morning.
She had no chance of hearing the intruder after taking out her hearing aid when she went to bed.
But plucky westie terrier Angel, who sleeps at the bottom of April’s bed, was determined to raise the alarm.
“Nothing wakes me up – I slept right through the hurricane in 1987,” said April, 41.
“But Angel just kept whining and whining until I finally did wake up.
“I wondered what she was whining at. I thought it might be a fox so I looked out of the bedroom window and saw the garage door was open.
“Then a bloke came out with a bag of stuff.”
She bravely banged on the window to startle the thief.
“I shouted ‘Oi! you!’ but he ran, jumped over the gate and legged it,” said April, who is a trainee occupational therapist at Colchester Institute.
Angel is now being hailed a hero by her proud owner.
The burglar escaped with just a remote-controlled car belonging to April’s disabled son Blake, 15, who goes to Lexden Springs School.
“Angel saved the day by waking me up so I could disturb him,” said April, of Littlebury Gardens, Old Heath.
“Some people might be thinking of getting rid of their dogs because of the credit crunch but they do look after you.”
Police are investigating the break-in, which happened in the early hours of Saturday.
“Angel is getting an extra bone today,” April added.
“She really is my guardian angel.”
My hero: April Porter gives her pet Angel a hug for alerting her to burglars.
In this section
- Pupil, 7, was ‘whipped by kids with a skipping rope’
- 'We haven't told mum her grandson killed her son'
- Patient had to clean her own filthy hospital ward
- Council security clampdown after leak to the Gazette
- Disabled gran who helped deliver daughter's baby
- Firm shuts doors on customers
- Conwoman who took charity cash is jailed
- Mystery of the Alphamstone stones
- Colchester house prices show green shoots of recovery
- Attendance up at new health centre
Sponsored Links
Local Advertisers
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
Boris, Colchester says...
2:24am Tue 13 Jan 09
I'd like to take this opportunity of thanking all the journalists and editorial staff who have kept us informed over the years about what has been going on locally. Sure, we have complained often enough about some details of their stories. But at least they have been here for us, and we have had the opportunity to contact them ourselves if we felt strongly about something.
So, in wishing them well for the future, whether in Basildon or in some entirely different career, let us be grateful for what they have done, and let us hope that some day soon we shall have a newspaper to cover our local issues.