AN 86-YEAR-OLD widow was left "frozen in fear" when she woke to find two masked burglars in her bedroom.
Beryl Godfrey was left "absolutely terrified" following the break-in at her Ilkeston home.
She said she thinks the men she discovered in her room "should be locked up and the key thrown away" after she was targeted while she slept.
Neighbour Michelle O'Connor, 41, has known childless Beryl all her life and said she was "like a second mother" to her.
She said: "My mobile went and I saw it was Beryl so I answered it but couldn't hear her. I knew something was wrong so I went round to her house straight away.
"Beryl can only walk with the aid of a frame and when I got to her house I walked in the kitchen and got to her just as she was about to fall over.
"She said to me 'I've been robbed by two men, I woke up and they were stood in my bedroom wearing masks'.
"She said 'I asked them what they were doing and they carried on going through my things before leaving as I got out of my bed'.
"Beryl has been left absolutely terrified to death about what happened. I think it is absolutely disgusting that she was targeted in this way."
Michelle said the break-in happened at Beryl's home in Cantelupe Road at 9.45pm on Monday, December 9. She said Beryl woke when the raiders switched on her bedroom light as they searched.
Michelle, who has been Beryl's carer for eight years, said: "It appears they only took her purse which didn't contain a huge amount of cash. But the point is not what was taken, it is that someone like Beryl was targeted by these men. She lost her husband Jack in 1995 when he suffered a heart attack and she has been on her own since.
"She told me she thinks the men that did this to her are disgusting and that she wants to see them caught, locked up and the key thrown away."
The raiders got into the bungalow by forcing a door and smashing a key safe off the wall. Police have visited her and a burglar alarm and security lights have been fitted to her property.
Michelle said: "The police have been brilliant but the damage is more psychological. She doesn't feel anywhere near as safe as she used to."
Police urged anyone who may have seen suspicious activity in the street or the area or who knows who was responsible to call 101.
