• A West Auckland family is traumatised after an intruder reached through a faulty sliding door and tried to grab a 10-year-old girl.
• Family and police searched the area but could not find the man.
• Mother Gladys Inu says the family is paranoid and the girl is ‘traumatised’ following the event.

A West Auckland woman says her family is traumatised after an intruder tried to reach through their door and snatch the arm of her 10-year-old daughter.

Massey resident Gladys Inu said her 2-year-old son had woken her and her daughter up, and the girl stayed awake to pack away her slime on the kitchen bench from the previous night.

The mother-of-four was “curled up” with the toddler in the lounge when she heard a loud scream from the kitchen around 4.30am.

“I jumped up, and I [saw] the curtain pushed forward and open.

“She was just screaming, ‘Someone tried to grab my hand!’”

An intruder had opened their ranch-slider door and reached out for the girl’s arm, Inu said. The sliding door cannot lock, and the inside door handle had broken off.

The intruder grabbed the 10-year-old girl's arm before fleeing. Photo / 123rf

Inu yelled at her daughter to run, which prompted the intruder to run off while she darted into the master bedroom with her children.

She woke her partner and eldest son up to look outside the house, which is next to a park, but couldn’t find the man.

Police arrived shortly afterward and searched the area but to no avail.

Inu said her daughter is “acting strong” but does not want to discuss the event and is “too scared to be on her own”.

“She’s looking over her shoulder all the time.

“I think being in the house is traumatising for her now.”

The girl saw the intruder’s face but did not elaborate further, Inu said.

‘She might not be here with us’

She said the whole family was nervous and constantly paranoid since the event.

“If I wasn’t in the sitting room at the time that happened, that blinking creep could have taken her.

“She might not be here with us.”

Inu said she had raised an issue with her faulty sliding door with her landlord for months.

After posting about the incident on a Facebook community group, several people shared their own stories of “creepy behaviour” around West Auckland in recent weeks.

“Keep an eye on your babies. Don’t let your guard down,” said Inu.

Police earlier said they were aware of a report of suspicious activity in Massey regarding a curtain over an open door being disturbed before 5am Sunday.

“Our staff cleared the property and nearby Triangle Park, but a person was not located,” Waitematā West area prevention manager Inspector Kelly Farrant said.

Farrant said police were aware of social media posts regarding suspicious behaviour in West Auckland in recent weeks, and appreciated they would be “concerning” for the community.

“Whilst a lot of information is rightly shared on community Facebook pages, we would like to take this opportunity to stress the importance of firstly reporting any suspicious activity to police directly.”