Police fail to show up to an attempted home invasion, leaving the wheelchair-bound Hamilton woman terrified

After the intruder left, she heard him talking to another person waiting in the wings.

Newman called police to report the incident, but police told her they were too busy to come right away. The dispatcher told her to file a report online.

“I understand that they are busy. If I had just had a robbery, I wouldn’t have bothered,” she said.

“But this was a dangerous man coming into my house. He grabbed my collar and went to my leg. I think he wanted to pull me out of that wheelchair.

“I waved my finger at him and told him, ‘Don’t come to this house!'”

The ordeal has left her terrified for her safety, especially as it is Newman’s third attempted home invasion in recent years.

“I couldn’t sleep or eat for a day, but I’m settling down now,” she said Herald.

“I don’t know if I can go to bed. I slept in the living room so I could watch the door.”

She said the most important role of police is to protect people.

“I am 74 years old and am in a wheelchair. I need to know that when I call 911, I am not doing it for fun or to have a chat.”

Newman’s friend Justine Orme said it could have been a potentially horrific experience and called for a police shake-up.

“She’s scared. There is no way she can defend herself,” she said.

‘They are there to protect us. If they are severely underfunded Or it doesn’t matter, something has to be done.

“What should we do to ensure that the police notice that something is wrong?”

Hamilton City Area Commander Andrea McBeth said police received a report around 3:20 a.m. on Oct. 28 stating that an unknown person had attempted to enter the caller’s home.

“The caller stated that she did not know if the man was still there, but confirmed that the doors to her home were now locked and that she was safe at the time. The job was recorded and she was asked to call back when the man returned,” she said.

“The original job was correctly coded as Priority 1, but at the time there were a number of other Priority 1 jobs that were assessed as posing a more immediate risk to life and safety.

“Later that morning, the caller was told by the caller’s support representative how to fill out a police report online and simultaneously upload security footage from outside her home so that police could follow up,” McBeth said. said.

“Police recognize the need to ensure that vulnerable members of our community respond to calls for service in a timely and efficient manner. However, we need to balance this with the resources we have available at the time, and with other priority jobs.

“We accept that our response in this case did not meet expectations and I have asked our prevention team to visit this individual to provide assurance that the matter is being addressed.”

McBeth said the incident awaits further review, including examination of the security footage.

Orme told the Herald that very apologetic police officers visited Newman on Wednesday afternoon.

“She said they told her there were only two officers in her area that night.”

David Williams is an Auckland-based multimedia journalist who joined the Herald in 2023. He covers the latest news and general topics.

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