Police are appealing for information after two youths stole cash from a 90-year-old woman’s home in Chilton after entering through an insecure door.
At around 5.30pm on Tuesday 15 August a member of public challenged one of the youths who was standing near a side door to the house. He and another youth, who was inside, then ran off, jumping over a fence before running up a nearby footpath.
Around the same time, police officers nearby were involved in a pursuit with a speeding Mercedes car, registration K832 TEA, as it travelled along the A417 through Wantage towards Faringdon and Stanford on the Vale. The pursuit was called off due to the dangerous driving and the offenders were not caught. It is believed that these two incidents may be linked.
The victim, who was in at the time but unaware of the burglary, later discovered that around £80 in cash had been stolen from the kitchen of the house.
The first youth is white, aged around 17, around 5ft 6ins tall, of medium build, clean shaven with dark hair. He was wearing a white hooded top, dark blue jeans and white trainers. The second was also white, of slim build, around 5ft 4ins tall, was clean shaven and had short blonde hair. He was wearing a blue long-sleeved T-shirt with white writing on, pale blue jeans and dark shoes.
PC Steve Cardwell, of the Abingdon Priority Crime Team, said: “These youths have taken advantage of an easy opportunity, an open door, and helped themselves to the cash of an elderly woman. At the same time a car was seen speeding away and we believe it to have been involved. Despite our best efforts to catch them their dangerous driving meant it was far safer for the public and our officers to call off the pursuit and so we now need help from the public to identify those responsible. I need to hear from anyone who saw any suspicious people or vehicles in the village or if they remember seeing the car as it drove away from the crime at speed. I must also urge the public to take note of this incident and to see how easy it is for thieves to take advantage of an open door and window, take precautions and bolt out the burglar.”
Anyone with information can contact PC Cardwell at Abingdon police station via the Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505. If you have information but do not want to speak to police and do not want to leave your name you can call the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.