A bungling burglar broke into the wrong house in a bungled insurance scam – and LEFT some stolen property from an earlier raid.
Drug-addled Terry Chambers had agreed to stage a break-in and make a fake claim in cahoots with the owner.
But he targeted the wrong flat and broke in as the terrified mother living there lay in bed.
She watched as Chambers casually ignored her and helped himself to her son’s £200 X Box game console.
He then calmly walked out – but left behind a bag containing a wooden bat, imitation musket and a handful of computer games.
Chambers, 35, was beginning a four-year jail term yesterday as Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Nick Gargan tweeted: “Everyone loves a “bungling burglar” story.”
Judge Michael Roach told the confused crook: “You terrified this woman.
“She had to wake up to find you coming into her bedroom and you continued to search her property.”
Prosecutor Richard Posner told how Chambers and an unidentified accomplice broke into the woman’s flat in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, at around 8am on April 22.
He said: “A stranger walked into her bedroom. It was the defendant. He saw her and walked out.”
Mr Posner said she saw another man in the spare room and added: “The men acted quite normally and she watched helplessly. The defendant didn’t seem to care.”
The shaken woman called police who quickly caught Chambers nearby – with the X Box sticking out of his rucksack.
Bristol Crown Court heard that unemployed Chambers told officers a friend asked him to “do an insurance job for money”.
He said he was under the influence of drugs and broke into the wrong house having taken the rounders bat and ornamental rifle from a charity shop.
Chambers admitted aggravate burglary and James Tucker, defending, said the offence was directly linked to his drug consumption and he had shown remorse.
