Shovel attack terrifies victim
An intruder used a shovel to smash a glass door during a violent confrontation with a mother of two near Armadale at the weekend.
Janine Wylds was watching a movie with friends in her Haynes home on Saturday night when she decided to take a look at a backyard swing set she had installed hours earlier.
As she walked to her patio Ms Wylds heard a man ask her whether she was scared.
When she realised the intruder was in her backyard, Ms Wylds shouted at him to get out of her garden.
The offender asked again whether she was scared and walked out of the darkness. He held a shovel that he had picked up from Ms Wylds’ side walkway.
Ms Wylds said she ran for the safety of her home.
“I closed the flyscreen door and he swung the shovel through the flywire and tried to hit my legs,” she said.
Ms Wylds struggled to close her glass door as the offender tried to keep it open.
“I managed to get it closed and locked,” she said. “As soon as I stepped back he brought the shovel up and tried to get it through the window, and then he succeeded on the second attempt. He threw it like a spear.”
Shattered glass from the door was strewn as far as the front door and even in the kitchen sink.
Ms Wylds and her friends ran from the home to a neighbour’s house and waited for police.
She said she had been left shaken and scared by the attack but she was grateful her young daughters were not home at the time.
“You’d like to think you are safe in your own garden but it wasn’t the case,” Ms Wylds said.
She hoped the experience would serve as a reminder to others to always remain vigilant, particularly in dark corners of their properties.
Anyone who saw anything suspicious on Rickett Street on Saturday is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
