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A hapless burglar who broke into a pensioner's flat was too scared to climb down and face her as she waited for him at the bottom of the drainpipe.

The woman threatened to 'belt' him when he got down to street level but Aristride Manfrin, 38, decided it would be safer to hang in mid-air.

Manfrin and two younger accomplices had broken into the flat in Turin, Italy, through the front door but were caught when a neighbour spotted them and raised the alarm.

But while the two younger crooks managed to climb down the drainpipe and made off, the rather larger and man had inched his way nervously down to the first floor, where angry pensioner Luisa Trentino, 69, was waiting to meet him.

Terrified: A burglar refuses to jump down the drainpipe after his angry victim waits for him at the bottom

She said: "I was with my daughter when she got a call on the telephone from a neighbour to say there were crooks in our flat upstairs.

"I was only in the shop on the pavement below, so when I came out I looked up and saw this man coming down the drainpipe. I told him hurry up, come down here, I've got a bone to pick with you.

'Would you like it if it happened to your mum?': Brave pensioner confronts burglar who targeted her home

"But he didn't. What a coward. He just waited there and refused to come down until police turned up to protect him. I mean it was only me and my daughter, and he was scared."

After shimmying down to the first floor level, the burglar decided to stay put, as it was safer than going down and facing the old woman.

The other two are still on the run.

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