A COUPLE are devastated as they face an unaffordable £4,000 bill after cowboy builders ripped off their roof tiles without warning.
Rose Pritchard, 68, is now scared to be at home after the three men targeted her house and demanded she pay for their damage.
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She was home alone in Wellingborough, Northants, when a man knocked at her door asking if she wanted him to look at the roof earlier this month.
The two others then put up ladders around the house while she was distracted and pulled off a six-feet-wide strip of tiles with their hands.
Rose had offered the cowboy builders her gold bracelet to leave which husband Pete, 67, bought her a few months earlier.
One of the men, who called himself William, originally took it before taking it back, telling Rose: “I can’t be doing that.”
Pete then came home from work and gave them £100 of their savings, which was meant to last them the month.
Rose told The Sun: “It’s a shock. I’m lost as to what to do.
“I just let them do it. They were big strapping lads and they were doing it before I realised.
“I feel shaky, vulnerable and scared. Whenever I open the door I keep the lock on.
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“I don’t want to live here anymore but we are both pensioners and can’t afford to move.”
But while they had been expecting builders to examine their roof, the tradesmen who arrived did not conduct the proper work.
Police confirmed the workman they made an agreement with knew nothing about the people who turned up.
They are now left with a huge repair bill they say they cannot afford as a result of the incident earlier this month.
Rose added: “We are asking for insurance. We haven’t got any savings, we are just plodding by.
I feel shaky, vulnerable and scared
Rose Pritchard
“When they arrived, the one at the door first asked to come through to the garden. I said no. I’m not having a man in my house.
“While he’s taken my mind off things, he’s got his boys putting ladders up and they threw down loads of tiles.
“There was nothing wrong with the tiles. I just kept thinking ‘go away, go away. My husband will be here soon’.”
Pete added he is now scared to leave her when he goes off to his warehouse job.
A kind neighbour put up scaffolding around the house for them while they prepare to get the roof fixed.
He told them he didn’t like what happened in his neighbourhood and said other residents were left feeling worried.
But Rose and Pete are still anxious about how they will afford the repairs.
Police enquiries are ongoing.
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