A Scots dad-of-three has described the terrifying moment thieves pulled a 'six inch' blade on him, chasing him with the weapon after he tried to stop them breaking into his van.
Stuart Colquhoun, 33, from Livingston in West Lothian, was at home with his partner Kirsty and their newborn baby on May 15 at around 11.50pm when he heard noises coming from outside his home. He looked at CCTV on his phone and spotted a masked man standing next to his van, reports Edinburgh Live.
The dad says he went into defence mode, in the knowledge that his partner and three young children were in the house, and went out to confront the thugs.
However, Stuart was soon in a dangerous situation when one of the would be thieves pulled out a knife.
He said: "I am shaken up about it. I saw a figure at the back of my work van and I just went into full protection mode. I shouted to my partner that there was someone at my van and I opened the door and shouted.
"They just didn't seem to care. They had such an attitude.
"One guy ran away and as I started chasing him, he just stopped and pulled out a six-inch knife in front of me.
"I didn't know if Kirsty was right behind me so I just shouted 'knife!' and I ran back into the house and locked the door. The guy chased me until he got to the back of the van again."
Stuart phoned the police and was told to stay in the house until they arrived. When officers got to his house, 15 minutes later, the two masked men had fled in a motor.
But Stuart discovered a three-inch by three-inch hole carved into the bodywork of his van and believes they were just seconds away from gaining entry.
"Thankfully they didn't have a chance to take anything but even if they had another ten seconds, they could have been away with stuff. I'm one of the lucky ones to say that I scared them away but people shouldn't approach them, getting threatened with a knife when I have a family in the house isn't a great thing.
"I've installed an alarm system on the house now because Kirsty is struggling to sleep after it. With me, if my tools were stolen, that would be the end of my career.
"I'm independent, I've done everything myself and this has been 13 or 14 years of collecting tools and they're things I would never be able to get back. It's a lot of money and I know other guys who have had their full vans nicked."
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 12am on Thursday, 16 May, 2023 we received a report of an attempted vehicle break-in in Livingston.
“Officers attended and there were no reports of any injuries. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”
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