Stranger caught in pensioner's empty flat when she answered the phone
Petruta Margian, 26, was snared by two carers in Bargilta Maniez’s flat in Glasgow’s Kelvinbridge area.
Last updated 17th Jan 2020
A Stranger broke into the empty house of a pensioner with dementia and bizarrely answered the landline phone.
Petruta Margian, 26, was snared by two carers in Bargilta Maniez’s flat in Glasgow’s Kelvinbridge area.
Margian fled from the living room window when the pair confronted her in August last year.
She later denied being at the house to police after she was arrested.
Margian was found guilty last month at Glasgow Sheriff Court to unlawfully being in Miss Maniez’s house with a reasonable inference to commit theft.
She was given a deferred sentence until June and ordered to be of good behaviour by Sheriff Patricia Pryce.
The court heard the carers who lived near Miss Maniez, 82, known as Mary, were worried about her.
Their concerns grew when they phoned her number and it was answered by a stranger.
In evidence Ms McAlinden said: “Someone with a foreign accent answered and said sorry you have the wrong number.”
They headed to Mary's home and en route, found her walking with crutches down the street.
The carers took Mary into her house where they were confronted by Margian sitting on the living room couch.
Miss McAlinden said: “She jumped up and she wanted to leave.
“We tried to stop her but that’s when she jumped out the window and said ‘no police’."
When arrested Margian claimed she had never been in the house.