A MOTHER has been left fearing for her and her family’s safety after a axe-wielding thug entered their house and secretly stole their possessions as they went about their morning routine.

Annemarie Bradburn and her family, including her 12-year-old son, were going about their business upstairs at around 6am on Tuesday, March 3, when a burglar entered her house in Barton Road.

He managed to take a handbag, car keys and games console controllers from the living room in her house Farnworth during the burglary.

Mrs Bradburn said: “I have been doing a sponsored walk for Cancer Research and had come downstairs onto the treadmill before going for a shower. I had been downstairs for a while and let the dog out and things like that.

“A little later, my husband looked out of the window to see if the car needed to be defrosted and he said that it was gone.”

After a moment of realisation, the pair quickly figured out that someone had been in their house just minutes before and had taken one of their cars.

Their indoor CCTV quickly confirmed it and the pair were shocked to see that the callous burglar had been armed with a hand-axe, while another had been stood guarding the area.

Mrs Bradburn had also been just metres away from the burglar at one point, after she went into the living room, while he was in the kitchen.

The burglar also sat on the sofa to get a better look at the family’s electrical goods

The burglar had taken two sets of car keys along with the house keys, but only one car, leaving Mrs Bradburn fearing that they would come back for the other.

She added: “My husband took the tyres off the car so it was disabled and they couldn’t come and get it, but your mind plays tricks on you.

“I was thinking ‘are they coming back tonight, are they coming back tomorrow’ or would they be passing our house keys onto someone else.

“The hardest part is that feeling of ‘what if’. If my son had gone into the kitchen or I had, anything could have happened.”

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: “At around 6.40am on Tuesday 3 March 2020 police were called to reports of a burglary on Barton Road in Bolton.

Two men who armed with a weapon entered the property and stole a set of car keys and a vehicle from the address.

No arrests have been made and enquires are ongoing.

Anyone who has any information should call police on 0161 856 5821 quoting incident number 412 of 03/03/2020.

Details can also be passed on anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.