AN 85-year-old woman has described the terrifying moment she encountered two intruders in her home in the small hours of the morning at the weekend.

Veronica Featherstone of Clayton Court, High Bondgate, Bishop Auckland, was left unhurt but in severe shock after the men fled her home and stolen her car parked nearby, at 5am on Saturday.

She said: “It was a terrifying experience. I had a terrible shaking do and went weak at the knees thinking what they could have done to me if they had turned on me.”

Mrs Featherstone said she was lying in bed half asleep at about 5am on Saturday when something made her open her eyes.

“There was no lights on in the house, but a little bit of light coming from window. I saw this shadow go passed my bedroom door which was wide open," she said.

“I thought ‘Eeh, that’s somebody in my house’. So I just got out of bed not thinking about the consequences at all.

“There was two of them when I got to the doorway of my bedroom. One was coming out of one room and the other out of another one.

“I said “who are you”, just like that. It was the first thing that came into my head. They just made a dash for it. The front door was wide open. They had managed to shimmy it open.”

After she called the police Mrs Featherstone, found a padded box containing a man’s watch.

She said: “It wasn’t mine. These men must have dropped it. They must have burgled someone else.”

It was only after the police arrived she realised the raiders had taken her keys and used them to steal her bright blue Vauxhall Agila car. The intruders were “two dark slim figures of medium build, who looked youngish".

A Durham Police spokesperson said: “We were called to reports of a burglary at about 5am on Saturday. Inquiries are ongoing. Anyone with any information is asked call 101, quoting reference 55 of November 21.”