Letter: Nothing funny about bold criminals

Sir: Peter Rosengard's humour (29 June) about being burgled while at home seems misplaced. A friend of my son, aged 24, woke in the night recently to find two masked men in his bedroom, one with a knife to his throat and one with a pistol to his head. They terrorised him, tied him up, stole his possessions and then went upstairs to do the same to his parents. He freed himself and went for help, but by the time the police came the men had gone, taking their spoils with them. For 20 minutes, the traumatised parents and the young man's sister thought that he had been kidnapped.

It will be a very long time before this family gets over this devastating assault, if indeed the mother ever does. The police could only say such a modus operandi was 'very unusual', but every breaking of the code is unusual at first. Personally, I can't see anything amusing about the increasing boldness and ruthlessness of British criminals.

Yours etc,

LYNNE REID BANKS

Beaminster, Dorset

29 June