Dog owner fights off three men who tried to barge into his home to steal his pets

A dog owner fought off three men who tried to barge into his house to steal his pets.

Ryan Hesford, 33, was home alone with his three pooches when the doorbell started to ring persistently.

When the callers refused to connect to his video and sound-recording bell system, Ryan opened the door to find two of them wearing masks.

He said: “The whole thing happened in literally 16 ­seconds from when I opened my front door.

“I have two shih tzus and a Pomeranian, which I ­believe are massive on the hit list of dogs going missing at the moment.”

The bell’s footage shows a man with a neck tattoo saying: “Parcel for Gary?”

As Ryan says there is no Gary at that address, the man lunges at him – with a masked accomplice also piling into the scuffle.

Ryan added: “I could tell as soon as I opened the door something wasn’t right. He seemed really ­agitated on his feet, he was shifting from left to right.

“I tried to slam the door on him as he came for me, but he and the other two pushed back and I’ve been left with a big black eye.

“Two of them did also have metal bars, which I think is how I’ve got the big cut and bruise that have been left on my right arm.

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“All I could think was that I needed to get them away from my house.

“I managed to wrestle two of them out the front, and then I jumped over the wall and knocked on my neighbour’s window, and they came out to help me.

“That’s when all three of them ran off down the road.”

Property manager Ryan, of Doncaster, South Yorks, has shared the footage with police.

It was only when he played it back, he realised one man had actually got inside but apparently panicked and left again.

Ryan said he was home alone with the dogs when the incident happened on Wednesday night, as his partner was away working in London.

The Ring doorbell footage shows one of the men, with a distinctive neck tattoo, knock on Ryan’s front door twice, appearing impatient as he waited for an answer.

When the dogs started barking from inside the house, the man then moved to the front window and tried to peer in through the blinds, before knocking twice on the window.

He said: “The police got here within five minutes of the men running off – it was a really good response, I can’t fault them.

“They were here with crime scene officers and forensics until about 2am.”

And Ryan added: “I just want to get the footage out there to warn others to be aware of people like this.

“Not everybody would be able to fight back like I did. It’s harrowing to think what might have happened next if it was an old lady that they targeted.”