– slams police response

Sheer terror is what a single mother felt when she awakened in the wee hours of Sunday morning to find a man almost in her bed.

Vanessa Sankar awoke in darkness some time around 1.30 am on Sunday to a slight “shaking” of her bed. Mere seconds later, aided by a flashlight, Sankar discovered the intruder and began screaming.

The 29-year-old woman and her nine-year-old daughter reside in the upper flat of the Edinburgh, East Bank Berbice house. Sankar’s grandmother lives in the lower flat.

“I felt the shaking of the bed and I came wide awake,” Sankar recalled, “but I didn’t take it for anything because I know my daughter was sleeping with me. But when the bed shake again and I feel the bed sheet pull I reach under my pillow for the flashlight I would normally keep there… When I switch it on I saw him. He was already under the mosquito netting and his face was right in front of mine and I started to scream.”

Sankar said she immediately recognized the intruder as a young man who would normally do odd jobs for her and her relatives. Recently, she said, the young man had helped her with Christmas cleaning and would therefore be familiar with the layout of her home.

“My daughter was confused and started to scream as well and he immediately made a dash for it,” Sankar said.

The woman does not believe the young man intended to rob her since she had many valuables lying around the house and nothing was touched. Sankar said that the intruder clearly had “more sinister motives”.

“He [the intruder] can’t be more than 17,” Sankar stated. “I know him well because my family and I know him well.

He does not go to school so we give him odd jobs to keep him occupied and so that he would have his own money and be able to keep out of trouble.”

Meanwhile, Sankar says she is not satisfied with the response from police. The incident was reported to the New Amsterdam Central Police Station and Sankar had already given police a statement.

“That morning when the thing happen three ranks in all came to my home,” Sankar related, “and they said they would pass by his [the intruder’s] house but they never did. Plus up to last night [Sunday] I saw him and called the police twice but they never responded.”

Relatives of the intruder have since approached her, Sankar said.

“This boy’s mother is a Rural Constable and I think that is why he has never gotten into much trouble with police,” Sankar said.

Less than a month ago, Sankar said, the young man had been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage female.