An 81-year-old man says he was left to his own devices when police didn’t respond to reports of a break-in at his Melbourne home.
Peter Damianopoulos (pictured) was woken up on Monday night by the sound of burglars breaking down the door to his home.
He armed himself with a stick and yelled out to the thieves.
“I tell them ‘I’ll kill you, you bastards’ and they left,” he told 7NEWS.
A neighbour says he saw three people flee the home in a car.
But the great-grandfather’s front door was left busted open.
He called Triple-0 and says he was told police would be there shortly.
They never arrived, so he called another two times.
Fearing the intruders could return, Peter tried to barricade his home with a chair pushed against the wall.
“What does it mean [if] they come in the morning?” he said.
“By morning, maybe they’ve killed me.”
His furious daughter Christine is demanding answers as to why police arrived eight hours after her dad first called.
“Why was he alone, why were you not there, why was someone not there?” she asked.
“I was livid.”
Police have since spoken to Peter and offered an apology but no explanation.
They suggest there may have been a resourcing issue or a miscommunication.
This article first appeared on 7News.
