Swearing at them, the man yelled he was not there to hurt them, "I just want your keys ... "
Ms O'Connor ran to call the police, instructing her two young boys to hide in the bedroom, while her husband remained at the door with a shovel handle to protect the family.
The man, whom police said had not been identified, smashed a window pane in the front door and then lingered in the area, banging on the house.
She said she and her husband were left shaken and in the wake of the incident were considering undergoing counselling.
"I've been having problems walking out my front door - thinking, what if?"
But this was only one of several incidents which seemed to arise from the alleyway beside the house.
She said in the past year, the house has also been egged, had its power shut off and kitchen window smashed and fireworks tossed at the front door.
A Sunderland Drive resident who also lives near the alleyway, which connects Sunderland and Caernarvon drives, said it was "a hassle".
"I reckon if they got rid of the alleyway, it'd be a lot better."
She said it was "derelict-looking," prone to graffiti and there was a lot of foot traffic.
Flaxmere councillor Henare O'Keefe's mobile BBQ "Tunu Tunu" visited the street last week, in a bid to drum up some community goodwill in the wake of the O'Connor family's experiences.
"[The O'Connors] have been receiving some untoward attention," Mr O'Keefe said. "There's an alleyway in close proximity to their home which has been giving them problems.
"The BBQ was held to bring the street together, to galvanise them and get them looking out for one another."
Mr O'Keefe said the alleyway was used as a thoroughfare for schoolchildren and pedestrians, and it had been suggested Hastings District Council "brighten it up," by adding painted murals and removing overhanging trees.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said he was aware of the alleyway and the council was considering options for its "removal or closure".
Senior Sergeant Clint Adamson of the Eastern District Command Centre said alleyways could be troublesome spots for police.
"Alleyways are a bit hard to patrol, in terms of targeting resources in one spot. I wouldn't say all of them are a magnet for shady characters, but some of them are.
"They're an easy way to move quickly between streets for people who are up to no good, and over the years some of them have been closed."
Meanwhile, Ms O'Connor said her family wasn't ready to move out of the street just yet.
"We bought the place - we plan on staying here. We saved up for years for it, so we're not moving out."
Her message to the perpetrators was simple: "Violence of any extreme is not needed."
