A HOUSEHOLDER who confronted two burglars in his kitchen rang 999 on Sunday — and is still waiting for police to turn up.

Bank worker David Booth was woken by a noise at around 2am on Sunday and found the two men, who he believes were trying to steal the keys to his car.

After challenging the thieves in his Rutherford Drive home, Over Hulton, Mr Booth gave chase as they fled.

He made a 999 call and was initially told police would come as soon as possible. He then received a call around an hour later telling him there had been a delay, but officers would still visit him.

But at 7am on Sunday morning he received another call advising him that officers would not be coming to see him and the case would be referred to the community policing team.

His last contact with police was on Sunday afternoon, when he rang to tell them neighbours had CCTV footage of the intruders escaping.

But by Thursday evening officers had still not visited his home.

Mr Booth said: “We have come to a point now where somebody can break into your house, you can be face-to-face with them, and police don’t class it as a serious enough crime to even attend.

“Nobody has been round just to show presence or put my mind at ease.”

He added that he believed the intruders were attempting to snatch the keys to his car, a 64-plate Golf GTI, and that he may have been targeted.

The incident happened just an hour before a man was run over an killed while trying to stop thieves stealing his car in Chorlton, Manchester.

He said: “I think it’s just a bit of a shambles from start to finish and not what you expect from the police.

“I don’t expect them to turn up the next day saying they have made arrests but the police are there to instil confidence and make you feel safe and they’ve not done that.”

Other residents in Rutherford Drive were also unhappy with the police response.

He said: “I’ve spoken to neighbours who think it’s disgraceful a police officer has not been up and down the street after this kind of crime.

“We are left to our own devices to defend our own homes.”

Greater Manchester Police said it took all reports of crime 'incredibly seriously'.

Inspector Scott Brady, of GMP’s Bolton Borough, said: "We investigate each report thoroughly and ensure all opportunities are explored; part of this includes the involvement of specialist crime scene examiners.

“When we receive a report of any incident, we assess the immediate threat, harm and risk to the public and allocate officers and resources accordingly.

"We do this with full consideration of all the competing demands that we may be facing at that particular time and the assessment is then made to respond immediately, at a later time or by telephone resolution; none of these levels of response diminishes the level of investigation.

“Over the past five years the amount of burglaries in Bolton has gone down. This is thanks to work that our partners and communities have done with the police to increase security measures in homes and we understand the need to continue this hard work to keep our communities safe.

“One burglary is one too many however, if you become a victim yourself to a burglary or any other crime, we will do all that we can to investigate and bring those responsible to justice.

“We intend to speak to the victim in this case and discuss the concerns.”