UK grandmother tackles burglar after pet dog proves man's best friend

A plucky grandmother accosted a burglar in her house after her dog failed to see him off and instead began to lick him.

Jean Walsh, 73, who has 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild, pushed the intruder up against the wall and told him to get out of her house.

The pensioner, from Stockton, had been reading in the kitchen of her Victorian house when she heard a noise upstairs.

She said she thought it might have been her husband returning from a fishing trip to Ireland but when she went to check, she saw a figure coming down the stairs.

“I saw a lad coming down the stairs with a torch. I said ’hey who are you and what are you doing up there?’,” she said.

“He never said anything and carried on down the stairs. He was face-to-face with me, I said ’is there anyone else up there with you?’ and he just mumbled.

“Pure instinct took over and I grabbed him and put him up against the wall. He told me there was another couple of people up there.

“I thought, ’Oh God, I can handle one’ but I had visions of more of them coming down stairs with knives and screwdrivers.

Supergran Jean Walsh, 73, pinned a burglar against the wall. But Marley her dog licked him and wagged his tail. pic.twitter.com/D77vxBWoa8

— Tom Wilkinson (@tommywilkinson) November 11, 2015

“I said ’get out of my house now’ but he said ’No, I’m going in that room now’.”

Mrs Walsh had tried to get her Border Collie Marley to see him off but the gentle pet just licked him.

She moved into her kitchen and, keeping her foot on the door to stop it from being opened, rang the police and her son who lives nearby.

Within seconds she heard more voices and feared it was the burglar’s friends, but it turned out to be police who were already in the street looking for the thief.

Despite the traumatic experience, she said she was happy to stay in the house that night.

“I said I was fine, the threat had been removed,” she said.