An elderly couple have spoken out about the terrifying moment a machete gang attacked them in their home before the husband bravely fought them off with a chair.
Dashcam footage captured the yobs fleeing the scene on a scooter following the broad daylight attack.
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The woman, who just gave her name as Josephine, told how the gang ambushed her outside her home at 3pm on 11 February.
Eventually the gang fled empty handed after the couple's neighbours in Stourbridge, West Midlands, dashed to help them.
Speaking at a police press conference on Thursday (7 March), she said: "They got me by the garage door and it all escalated from there.
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"Me and Colin got ourselves into the house via the garage door and there was this young boy in the sitting room with a chair and a knife in his hand.
"Colin had to pick up a chair to defend us. I was just telling him to put the chair down and I would get him the keys.
"I thought if I could get him into the hall I could get him out of the house but once we got to the hall there was a neighbour standing there and neighbours outside and they just fled.
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"But prior to that they'd smashed a lovely vase in the hall, smashed a glass. They were quite violent and so loud, totally out of control.
"I think we're probably settling down now but I will never forget the knife and the noise. It was just so loud I cannot really describe it. I'll never forget the knife, it was quite big.
"They were shouting: 'Mrs, Mrs, keys, keys!' It was so just intimidating which is what I suppose they were trying to do, just to intimidate us to give in and pass over the keys - but they got the wrong couple.
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"Why should we give into these young people? They need to know that this is not the way to carry on. It really is appalling behaviour.
"I can still hear the sound vibrating in my head. Keys, keys, Mrs. I was thinking he won't really kill me because he'll end up with life in prison."
Probably not the sort of thing you want to just chance though, is it?
Colin added: "There is no reason we were targeted at all, it just came out of the blue. They were just opportunists. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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"Immediately after we saw the moped one of the men had a knife to Josephine at the garage door. It all happened so quickly. The paramedics said that if we were perhaps not so physically fit we could've been on the floor with a heart attack. It was all very traumatic."
Detective Sergeant Leighton Shingles, of West Midlands Police, said: "We have identified the moped as a Sym 50cc but do not have registration plate.
"The moped was moving too fast and because of that it has been impossible to get the registration plate down."
Featured Image Credit: SWNSTopics: Police, News, crime, UK