Hamilton home invasion: Intruder attempts second break-in, same street, three hours later

A man who tried to invade the home of a 74-year-old Hamilton woman also tried to get into another address on the same street after police were a no-show at the elderly woman’s incident.

Toria Newman told the Herald last week when she heard knocking on her door at 3am on October 28, she opened it thinking it was the friend who’d left a few minutes before. However, it was a man, who increasingly aggressively asked to use the phone.

The 74-year-old has cerebral palsy and couldn’t defend herself but was able to loudly tell the man to leave.

Newman rang the police to report the incident – but police told her they were too busy to come straight away. The dispatcher told her to log a report online.

Now, another Hamilton East resident says the same man tried to get into her home three hours later on the same morning.

The woman who didn’t want to be named, was at home sleeping when her friend awoke to a loud knocking on their door at 6am.

“She opened the curtain and he was right there against the window trying to peek in and open the door,” she told the Waikato Herald.

“He saw her and said, ‘Hey, you’re home, let me come in’, and was acting like he knew her and indicating that he wanted her to open the door.”

Her friend freaked out, closed the curtain, and ran to wake the woman.

“We could hear him trying to open the doors, which obviously wasn’t working,” due to her habit of keeping her doors locked.

“Then he came up the side and went back down again, we couldn’t see him but we could see the security lights turning on and off so there was movement happening.

“He just hovered around trying to get into all the doors, he didn’t take anything from the property ... just loitering for I don’t know what.”

He wandered around her property for 10 minutes before leaving.

The woman was sure that the man at her door was the same one who tried to enter Toria Newman’s home after she saw a video circulating on social media.

Hamilton woman Toria Newman was targeted during an attempted home invasion in October 2024.

“Luckily for us, we had our doors locked and deadbolted already so he couldn’t get in, but it was a weird and concerning way to wake up.

“If something wasn’t locked, it would be a different story and it’s freaky to think about what could have been ... I’ll be checking my doors every night.”

She reported the incident to police at 6.02am and the operator stayed on the phone with them for seven minutes, all while the man was still attempting to get in.

“It was a bit unnerving so he [operator] said he’d stay on the line till cops arrive and said they were also changing shifts but would be out soon. But after the guy left, we didn’t get a police visit and were told to call back if he comes back.”

She got a call from police about an hour later asking if they were okay and said they’d been scanning the area but hadn’t found him.

Police told Waikato Herald today that they received two reports that morning of a person acting suspiciously on and around their Hamilton East properties.

“At the time police made area inquiries and were not able to locate the person.”

Police have been approached for further comment.

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.