Brave Dumfriesshire pensioner tells how she faced off serial burglar and talked him out of home – so he didn’t wake her disabled hubby
Fearless Rachel Bainbridge, 76, didn’t scream in terror when she woke to find thief Ryan Ferguson at the bottom of her bed
A BRAVE pensioner has told how she faced up to a burglar and talked him out of her home — so he didn’t wake her disabled hubby.
Fearless Rachel Bainbridge, 76, didn’t scream in terror when she woke to find serial thief Ryan Ferguson, 24, crouching at the bottom of her bed.
Instead, she persuaded him to go downstairs and gave him a drink and some cash before calling the cops.
And her quick thinking helped land Ferguson an 18-month jail term — after he was nabbed by the fingerprints he left on her juice glass.
Recalling the lout’s raid on the home she shares with George, 88, in Annan, Dumfriesshire, Rachel said: “I don’t know why I wasn’t scared when I saw him in my bedroom.
“I just didn’t want to have to deal with a burglar, a husband who can’t walk and chaos.”
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The plucky gran said she asked the crook why he was in her home.
She recalled: “He put on this little boy act and started saying sorry over and over again.
“I got him downstairs and asked him if he’d pinched anything.
“When he said no, I told him to empty his pockets. He had a tool which he said was for his bike but I didn’t like the look of it.
"He said our house reminded him of his gran’s.
“But I can’t think why he’d want to climb through his grandmother’s dining room window.”
Ferguson asked for a drink and cash for the train home to Dumfries.
Rachel said: “I handed him £10 to get rid of him and also gave him two glasses of squash, which the police then got his fingerprints off.”
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Rachel later discovered Ferguson nabbed her iPad in August’s robbery.
He was caged at Dumfries Sheriff Court by beak Brian Mohan after admitting a spate of thefts.
Police Sergeant Anna Boyd praised Rachel, saying: “She acted in a very cool and calm manner in what was actually a very frightening incident.”
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