Burglary victims' 13-hr 999 wait

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A couple say they had to wait 13 hours for a police officer to arrive at their home after they reported a burglary.

Thierry Mugumyankiko, 34, and his girlfriend Martina Aumeyr discovered the break-in at their home in Cardiff after coming home from work.

But they had to leave broken glass on their lounge floor overnight as an officer did not call until the morning.

South Wales Police said officers had been dealing with a number of emergencies that evening.

Ms Aumeyr was the first to find the house in the Grangetown area had been raided when she returned home on Tuesday evening.

Burglars had come through the back garden, and smashed the glass French doors to steal a television, a digital camera and a pearl necklace.

She said she called the police emergency number at 1930 BST and was told someone would be there in around an hour.

I'm kind of scared - if anything happens in the future, I don't know what to expect from the police Thierry Mugumyankiko

By 2030 BST, Mr Mugumyankiko was back at the property but there was no sign of anyone arriving to take their statements, so they rang again and were told officers were busy with "a big incident" in the city centre.

The couple's first two calls were at around the same time police were dealing with a stabbing in Queen Street.

The pair made two further calls that evening, at 2200 BST and 2300 BST before being told an officer would call "before 9am" on Wednesday.

An officer arrived at the property on the City Gardens estate at 0830 BST the next morning.

The delay meant the couple had to go bed with the broken door unsecured.

The couple say they rang the police four times after the burglary

Mr Mugumyankiko, a finance data analyst who has lived in Cardiff for three years, said he plans to make a complaint about the speed of the police response.

He said: "I feel that they let me down and on top of that they didn't give me any reason why they came 13 hours after the call.

"They said 'we have this big incident in the city centre' but you can't send the whole police force to the city centre.

"I'm kind of scared. If anything happens in the future, I don't know what to expect from the police."

A spokeswoman for South Wales Police said it was explained to the couple that officers were dealing with a number of emergencies, while their burglary was not a crime that was happening at that moment.

She said: "We got back to them about an hour later and made an appointment to go and see them the next morning because we had a number of emergency responses ongoing."