Toria Newman has been a target three times in recent years. Video / Supplied
Police told a Hamilton woman who uses a wheelchair they were too busy to attend an attempted home invasion at 3am. Instead, she was told she should fill out an online report.
Toria Newman told the Herald when she heard knocking on her door early on Monday, she opened it thinking it was the friend who’d left a few minutes before. However, it was a man, who increasingly aggressively asked to use the phone.
The 74-year-old has cerebral palsy and couldn’t defend herself but was able to loudly tell the man to leave.
“When I’m angry, I can talk very loud. So I started to talk very loudly and tell him I was ringing the police,” she said.
“He turned around and had a hissy fit. But then he turned round to me again and was about to come in again. I think he was going to pull me out of my chair, but decided not to.”
After the intruder left she heard him speaking to another person waiting in the wings.
Newman rang the police to report the incident – but police told her they were too busy to come straight away. The dispatcher told her to log a report online.
“I understand they are busy. If I had only had a robbery, I wouldn’t have bothered,” she said.
“But this was a dangerous guy who was going to come into my house. He took hold of my collar and went to take my leg. I think he was going to pull me out of that wheelchair.
“I was wagging my finger at him, telling him, ‘don’t you come in this house!’”
Hamilton woman Toria Newman, 74, with her friend Justine Orme. Newman has cerebral palsy and was the victim of a home invasion for the third time.
The ordeal has left her terrified for her safety – especially as it’s the third attempted home invasion for Newman in the past few years.
“I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t eat for a day, but I’m settling down now,” she told the Herald.
“I don’t know whether I can go to bed. I’ve been sleeping in the lounge so that I can watch the door.”
She said the police’s most important role was to keep people safe.
“I’m 74 years old and in a wheelchair and I need to know that if I ring 111, I don’t ring it for fun or to have a chat.”
Newman’s friend Justine Orme said it could have been a potentially horrifying experience and called for a police shake-up.
“She is scared. There is no way she can defend herself,” she said.
“They are there to protect us. If they are that grossly underfunded or don’t care, something needs to be done.
“What do we have to do to have police take notice that there is something wrong?”
Hamilton City area commander Andrea McBeth said police received a report around 3.20am on October 28 stating an unknown person had attempted to get into the caller’s house.
“The caller stated she was unaware if the male was still there, however confirmed that the doors to her home were now locked and she was at that moment safe. The job was logged and she was asked to phone 111 back if the male returned,” she said.
“The initial job was correctly coded as a Priority 1, however, at the time there was a number of other Priority 1 jobs which were assessed as posing a more immediate risk to life and safety.
“Through the caller’s support worker later that morning, the caller was advised on how to complete an online police report, and at the same time upload security footage she advised she had from outside her house, to allow for police follow-up,” McBeth said.
“Police recognise the need to ensure vulnerable members of our community receive a timely and efficient response to calls for service. However, we must balance this with the resources we have available at the time, and other priority jobs.
“We accept that in this instance our response fell short of expectations and I’ve asked our prevention team to visit this person, to provide reassurance that the matter is being attended to.”
McBeth said the incident is waiting on further assessment, including examining the security footage.
Orme told the Herald that very apologetic police officers visited Newman on Wednesday afternoon.
“She said they told her there were only two cops on duty in her area that night.”
David Williams is an Auckland-based Multimedia Journalist who joined the Herald in 2023. He covers breaking news and general topics.
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