A Welsh woman returned to her home to find a burglar had broken in and carried out various helpful tasks. The intruder had hung out her washing, re-filled bird feeders, cooked a meal and put her shopping away. Damian Wojnilowicz, 36, was later arrested for the offence along with a second burglary in Monmouthshire, two weeks after the first incident. The victim was so traumatised by the break-in, in which the burglar left a note saying “Don’t worry, be happy, eat up and scratch,” that she moved to stay with a friend.
Wojnilowicz was sentenced 22-months in jail on Thursday for the burglary and for using the shower in a summerhouse to wash and clean his clothes at the second residence. The homeowner discovered Wojnilowicz on his driveway via a CCTV alert on his phone. The burglar consumed food and drink, remains of which were found at the scene along with a dirty hot tub. The homeowner later found Wojnilowicz carrying a glass when he went to the property with his son-in-law.
Wojnilowicz, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary at Cardiff Crown Court. The court heard he has previous convictions for public order offences, common assault and failing to surrender. The victim of the first burglary said that Wojnilowicz had left her “in a state of heightened anxiety I had never experienced before”. The Crown Prosecution Service said that she had been subjected to “a significant intrusion in her home”. The burglar’s counsel said he was undergoing personal difficulties at the time and was homeless.
Recorder Christian Jowett told Wojnilowicz that the offences amounted to a significant intrusion in the victims’ homes. Earlier this year, a retired piano teacher returned to her home in Berlin to find a team of cleaners in place of a thief who had taken her suitcase containing cash, jewellery and old coins. The burglars had called a cleaning company and the crime was solved when the thieves were traced through the phone number the company’s employee left for follow-up cleaning work
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