This is the chilling moment a hooded burglar creeps around a pensioner’s home as she sleeps in a chair.
The footage was captured on secret cameras installed by police after Margaret Woodward was targeted by thieves.
It shows sinister crook Patrick Reid clad in dark clothing as he searches through the 68-year-old’s handbag.
He also leans directly over the frail arthritis sufferer and touches her as she sleeps in her living room.
Reid, 51, calmly leaves the room on several occasions and returns to make sure his victim is not awake.
He eventually flees after the sound of him unzipping a bag on her mobility scooter wakes Margaret.
She jumps from her chair and chases the burglar armed with a walking stick - threatening to “break his kneecaps”.
He escaped through the bedroom window of her ground-floor flat but his face was caught on film.
Reid had burgled Margaret, who has arthritis in both knees, four times in the space of just 12 months.
Derbyshire Police put secret CCTV and night-vision cameras into her property in a bid to snare the crook.
After being hit for the fifth time, detectives and Margaret were horrified to see the footage.
The pensioner said she felt suicidal after watching Reid creeping around her as she slept.
“The fact someone was touching me while I slept and I didn’t know made me feel like I didn’t want to live any more,” she said.
“I felt like it wasn’t my home any more - it was his home.”
Margaret said she furious when she awoke to discover Reid was again robbing her home in April.
“I’d been watching television and fell asleep after taking some painkillers,” she said.
“The next thing I knew I could hear my bag being unzipped. I opened my eyes and there he was.
“I was so angry he was back. I thought this time ‘I’m going to get you’. I told him: ‘I’ve caught you now you sod.’
“He legged it into my bedroom and I chased him with my walking stick. I shouted ‘I’m going to break your kneecaps.’
“He leaped onto the bed and sprang through the window like a kangaroo. I think he was more scared than me.”
Margaret called cops after chasing Reid out of her flat and he was caught minutes later cycling along a nearby street.
Derbyshire Police said Reid stole £900 from his traumatised victim over a 12 month period.
The career criminal was jailed for four years and eight months when he appeared at Derby Crown Court.
“I’m so happy he’s been locked up, I feel I can sleep at night now,” said Margaret, who is divorced and has no children.
“He said in court that he didn’t harm me, but I can tell you he harmed me emotionally.
“It turns out he was getting into my flat by climbing through the window. I used to leave it open an inch.
“Now it’s always closed and there’s no way I’m going to get burgled again.
“I hate him for what he’s done. What kind of lowlife robs a vulnerable woman over and over again?
“I haven’t been able to watch the video. It’s too upsetting.
“When he was sentenced the judge said he would spare me any distress by watching it in his chambers.
“After he watched it he came back into court and said he had never seen anything so disgusting in all his life.”
Margaret was awarded £1,500 from Derbyshire’s High Sheriff at a ceremony last week to honour her bravery.
She was praised at the event by Judge Jonathan Gosling - who sentenced Reid in June after watching the footage.
He said: “Some of us may have been unlucky in the past to have been burgled more than once.
“But I expect none of us have experienced what Margaret has had to. She was burgled by the same man no less than five times.”
“In the footage Reid walks right up to her chair, satisfies himself that she is asleep, steps around the chair and then looks in her mobility scooter.
“Suddenly she wakes up to find him at arm’s length away. Does she scream for help?
“No. Margaret, who cannot move easily at speed, gets up quickly from her chair and, stick aloft, chased him from her home.”
Det Con Gill Richardson, from Derbyshire Police, described the CCTV footage as “shocking”.
“The CCTV footage is chilling to watch,” she said.
“It’s particularly shocking how brazen Reid is in it, being just inches away from Margaret.
“It’s something that just gets more shocking the more times you see it.
“We install these cameras in homes where someone has been a repeat victim of crime, or where we believe the homeowner is vulnerable.
“This case shows just how valuable they are.
“These cameras have helped bring to justice a prolific burglar, who caused such a massive amount of distress to his victim.”
