An Auckland mother locked her four children away and told them not to emerge, no matter what they heard, as a would-be home invader smashed on the walls of the family home. 

As her husband armed himself with a bat and knife, the terrified mum spent 40 minutes in what she says was a “life or death” wait for police to arrive. 

The Coatesville family were all at home on Sunday night when a man crashed a car through the iron gates at the top of their driveway and made his way toward their home before repeatedly trying to gain entry. 

Recovering at home on Monday, the mother told the Herald she was sleeping with her youngest child and was woken shortly after 3am by her husband, who had been asleep in another room. 

Her husband had been woken by their German shepherd to an “off his face” man who appeared outside their home in the early hours. 

Through the door, her husband offered the man water and offered to call a taxi or police, before the conversation turned and he woke his wife to call 111. 

“At first he wasn’t abusive or too aggressive, he was just incredibly strange and he was kind of a-mile-a-minute speaking and he said, ‘There’s been a car crash, I need to come in’,” she explained. 

He said he was looking for his girlfriend, and provided a name the family did not recognise. 

“Then he just turned super aggressive,” she said. 

He moved from the front door around the side of the house where the couple’s eldest child, a 14-year-old girl, slept in a room with a door to the outside. 

Roused by the commotion, the 14-year-old said it took a moment to register what was going on. 

“I thought I was being woken up for school and then I realised, and I was just absolutely terrified.” 

Damaged gates at the property. 

The mum then gathered up all her children - her eldest, a 9-year-old girl and 11- and 13-year-old boys - and shut them away in a small space inside the house. 

“It was really scary, I was trying to keep my siblings calm because I didn’t want to freak them out,” the girl said. 

The long wait 

After calling police and attempting to make their children safe, the two parents then faced an agonising 40 minutes as they tracked the man’s repeated attempts to gain entry to their home. 

“I kept saying to the dispatcher, ‘How far away are you?’” she said. 

“I was just thinking it was only a matter of time until he got in.” 

She returned to the children’s hiding place, blocking the door with a bed and telling the children: “No matter what you hear, do not come out.” 

“I was just hoping that we could, if there’s two of us to fight, that we could put up enough of a fight that by the time police got there at least the kids would hopefully be okay. 

“The adrenaline just takes over, you know, like I was really terrified,” she said, describing sitting in the dark and seeing the man move around the outside of their home “yelling and screaming”. 

She said her biggest concern was that the dispatcher did not seem able to tell her how far away help was. 

“It was then that I was like, ‘Okay, reality is he’s probably going to get in. We’re just going to have to try and fight him and hope that we win and, if not, the police get there before he got to the kids’.” 

Armed with a bat and knife, her husband wondered who else they could call for help as the desperate mum prepared for the “fight of my life”. 

She said placing the bed across the door was designed to keep the intruder out and keep her 13-year-old in, fearing he would get out and try to help if he heard his parents being attacked. 

At one point during the ordeal, hearing a loud bang and thinking the man had entered their home, the 13-year-old told his siblings to get behind him, grabbing what he could to defend the other kids. 

“No matter what you hear, you have to stay in here, promise me,” she told her children as she turned out the light and shut the door. 

The crashed car seen inside the property. 

“Life or death” 

Police eventually arrived, arresting a man on a nearby property, but the woman said the delay in police response “could have been life or death”. 

She wanted to warn others to make sure their properties were locked and secure, describing her own attitude to home security before the incident as “blase”. 

“We’re usually not very good at locking up because I think, ‘Oh well, we live on a rural property, we’re well back off the road, we’ve got wrought iron gates’. 

“But how easy was that? He just drove his car straight through the wrought iron gates. 

“I’m really worried about our society because I think we’re living in extreme times,” she said. 

The mother said the family decided to speak publicly to warn others about the need to have a home security plan. 

“We live in times where we have to be really careful and it’s like having a fire plan. 

“We should actually, sadly, have a plan that, if someone broke in or you think someone is breaking in, where’s a safe space that we could wait it out? 

“Our police force isn’t strong enough, they’re not big enough to handle this rise in crime,” she said. 

A police spokesperson confirmed that police responded to an incident in Coatesville early on Monday. 

“At around 3.05am, we received a report from a member of the public that an unknown male was on their property causing disruption. 

“Police attended and took a man into custody without incident.” 

Chris Marriner is an Auckland-based journalist covering trending news and social media. He joined the Herald in 2003 and previously worked in the Herald’s visual team.