Police are warning Exeter residents to be on the alert after a burglar got into a house by claiming his football was in the occupant's back garden.
The householder, a woman in her 80s, went to unlock her back gate and the man went into the house and up the stairs.
She bravely shouted at him and he left empty-handed.
It happened at a house in Mincinglake Road and police think he may strike again - he was in his 30s wearing a black woollen hat.
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