A woman is in shock after she watched a thief try to break into her house in a string of late night burglaries across Hockley.

The attempt was one of three burglaries reported by Essex Community Messaging in The Westerings, Westminster Drive and Newton Hall Gardens in Rochford.

All three incidents happened between 12.15am and 3.10am on Tuesday morning.

The woman, who has asked not to be named, was awake at her home in The Westerings when she heard a sudden knock on the door.

She said: “It was a really bizarre situation, it was early in the morning and my cat started scratching my rug, so I decided to go to sleep as.

"I was going through the hall, I looked up and there was a tall figure at the door.

“I thought someone was knocking on my door, but by the time I could see he had scarpered.

“I went to wake my husband and once he had woken up he was gone.

“I phoned 101 at around 1.50am, and within ten minutes we had police out with search lights on in the road.

“Two officers were in our kitchen by around 2am.”

She said that the thief was trying to pick the lock of her front door and fled once he had been seen by the woman.

She said: “They were trying to stick something in the lock of the door to break into my house.

“They were not worried about setting off any alarms or being seen.

“It does sound awful, but it made us feel better knowing that we were not specifically targeted.

“It is sad as this is a lovely area and I have lived here all my life.

The woman was thankful for how quickly police were at her home and trying to find the thief who was said to have attempted to break in to a neighbour’s home.

She said: “We were fortunate that they were in the area. Credit to the police, they were at my house with forensics and the CID by 9.30 on Tuesday morning.

“There’s cosmetic damage to the door and I called out an engineer to fix the damage but you cannot see the marks on there.”

Although she did not see the thief fully, the woman gave a small description.

She said: “Judging by the height of our door, they were about six-foot-tall, he was wearing a light-coloured hoodie.

“I could not see any facial features as his hood was up.

“Someone from down the road checked their CCTV from where he had tried at her house 15 minutes before mine, we believe he was wearing a balaclava.”