A PLUCKY pensioner has told how she slammed the door shut on a burglar.

Frightened Freda Nolan threw herself against her front door to keep out an intruder as he attempted to get in.

The 83-year-old said she was watching television when she got up to answer her front doorbell.

She said: "When I went to the door, I just opened it a little way. I had not got my chain on.

"This chap was at the door and said someone has left a parcel for him somewhere round here. I told him I was afraid it was not here, and he said he would just come in and have a look anyway.''

Mrs Nolan said: "He tried to push the door open and I pushed it back, and the door went back in his face. I pushed the door shut with both hands.

"It was a real shock, but now I am getting over it.''

This latest attempt in what has been a spate of walk-in burglaries in Middlesbrough, happened in the Priestfields area of the town at the weekend.

The would-be thief made off empty-handed on a bicycle.

Mrs Nolan said: "I am still on the alert all the time. You do not feel safe in your own home unless the door is locked."

She said her advice to others is: "Do not answer the door unless it is on the chain and you know who it is.''

Echoing her message, a spokesman for Cleveland Police said: " We always tell people to never let a stranger in, but always check and, if in doubt, keep them out.''

l A woman was admitted to hospital where she was treated for shock after a conman, pretending to be a water company official, bluffed his way into her home, on Middlesbrough's Pallister Park estate.

She and her husband, both in their late-70s, let the conman in when he told them it was an emergency. The thief stole a substantial sum of money, bank books and war medals.