An Aberdeen mum has spoken of her horror at discovering her house had been broken into while she and her daughter were asleep inside.
Margaret Mathieson went to bed with a migraine at around midnight and dropped off to sleep at around 1.30am.
When her son Liam and friend Dean returned to the house in Bucksburn around 4.30am, they found thieves had got into the house through the unlocked back door and made off with a laptop, Playstation and headphones.
The hooligans also emptied the contents of Miss Mathieson’s handbag onto the floor and stole £30.
Her daughter Ellie, 11, was asleep in the front room of the property at Cruickshank Crescent and did not hear the raid.
Last night Miss Mathieson said she was just grateful that the thieves did not spot her car keys on the table in the front room – or it might have been stolen as well.
The 51-year-old said she had been left shaken by the incident.
She said: “I feel violated, it’s scary that this has happened while I’ve been asleep in the house.
“Since then I’ve been paranoid – last night I got out of bed three times to check the door was locked.
“Today I locked the children in when I went to work, normally I leave the door unlocked.
“It’s also worrying that my daughter was asleep on the ground floor when this happened, the first thing the two boys did when they came in was to check that she was okay.”
The family have lived in Bucksburn for several years and have never heard of anything like this happening before.
Miss Mathieson added: “To get into our house they would have had to go through the neighbour’s gate to get to the back door.
“I hope that by telling people about this we can prevent it from happening to others.”
Councillor Barney Crockett, who represents the Dyce and Bucksburn ward, echoed her concerns.
He said: “It is deeply shocking to all of us that in what is normally a law-abiding area that someone should have this terrible experience.
“We have been good at cleaning up crime in the area in recent years and I would look to other people in the area to give reassurance about how rare this is.”
Police are investigating the raid which happened overnight on Sunday, and are appealing for anyone with information to get in touch by calling 101.