THE wife of a man who restrained a burglar in their own home has described their shock upon catching the would-be thief red-handed.

Jackie Crossman and her husband Bob were shocked to be disturbed by a burglar in the early hours of Thursday morning (25th February) at their home in St James Street and rushed to confront him.

“I was awake reading at 1.30am and heard a noise downstairs,” Jackie says. “I woke my husband up because it was obvious that there was someone in the house.

“We went shooting down the stairs and found a man at the bottom of the stairs.”

Some quick thinking by Jackie and Bob meant that the intruder was restrained until the police arrived.

“Bob managed to grab a hold of his jacket while I ran to call the police, and he managed to restrain him for the 15 minutes or so that it took the police to arrive.

It is believed that the man climbed over the back wall at the rear of the property, walking along walls, before gaining access to the house.

“One of my biggest concerns is that we live on a street with elderly people and families with children,” Jackie added.

“Having seen such a spate of burglaries recently, we hope this will take one of them off the streets.”

“We’ve been lucky to have had some closure. It must be awful for people to have been burgled and not know, or never know, who did it.

“At least we know who it is so he will go through the court system and hopefully get his comeuppance.”

A spokeswoman from Gwent Police said: “We received a call at 1.55am on the morning of Thursday 25th Feb - a burglar has been caught in a residents home.”

The 24 year old man from Abergavenny, who cannot be named at this time, has been charged and will appear in Newport Magistrates Court on 29th March.