In Their Own Words – Sweat Shop

Tonight, on In Their Own Words, we look into a series of recent home invasions linked by one unusual theme. We start in Liverpool, where forty five year old Toni came home from a shopping trip to Liverpool 1...

I remember it was late October, because I was looking for an outfit for Halloween – so I was wearing a large sweatshirt, dark grey body with a pattern on the front, and lighter grey sleeves. I had the sleeves pulled up my arms because – well, because I wanted to. My outfit was completed by a pair of old jeans, and over the legs of those jeans a pair of black leather over the knee boots, that had a two inch wooden heel. They were an old pair – and by old I mean over twenty years old – but I liked them.

Anyway – I was looking for a Halloween outfit, and I found one, so I was happy to head home and relax for the evening. The bus ride back didn’t take too long, and I let myself in, taking the clothes to my room and then heading down to the kitchen.

Now, I have a very distinctive kitchen – red cupboards and doors, and a white tile arrangement. I mean, when I was a kid it was nothing spectacular to have this, but now...

Losing the point, however – I went into the kitchen, intent on making myself a coffee, and I did just that – put the kettle on, put some Maxwell House and milk into a mug, poured in the hot water, stirred it around, put the spoon in the sink – and then found myself unable to say anything as I was grabbed from behind, and a gloved hand clamped firmly over my mouth.

Well, of course I tried to call out, and then I heard a voice saying “I like your sweatshirt – it would be a pity to get blood or something worse over it, so calm down and do as I say.”

Why are those words stuck so firmly in my head? Because it was a woman who said them, as I was made to lean over the work surface, and my arms pulled behind my back. I felt whoever she was cross my wrists, and then heard the rasping sound as a zip tie was used to secure them tightly together.

Well, I guessed this was going to be a robbery, and I had already realised the best thing to do was exactly what she told me to do, so that she was out of there as quickly as possible.

So, when she told me to sit on the work surface, I did just that – and I also got a look at her. She was wearing a black sweater, pants, trainers, gloves – and balaclava mask, so all I saw were her blue eyes and black lips.

Anyway, that’s when it got a bit different, as she pulled from a bag a second zip tie, and used it to secure my ankles together side by side. She then made me bend my legs, and used another zip tie around my waist to force my thighs against my stomach. She then pressed several layers of duct tape over my mouth, and left me there while she robbed me.

Actually, she did one other thing – she turned the over on full blast, while she went through the house. In itself, that may seem innocuous – but the worktop I was sitting on was near the oven, and as time went on I started to feel hotter and hotter. But I was secured in a way which made it next to impossible for me to move, as I started to sweat.

She looked in at me one last time, and then left me there, the sweat stains getting larger and larger on me as I tried to struggle. The one good thing – although it took a while to realise this – was that eventually the sweat loosened the tape over my mouth, and I was able to shout for help.

My next door neighbour was in his garden, and heard me, so he ran round and found me there, covered in sweat and secured. He turned the over off, cut me free, and helped me to sit in a chair with a glass of iced water to sip while he called the police. I shudder to think what would have happened otherwise...

Our second tale comes from Port Sunlight, and twenty two year old Natasha. She returned home to her house after work one day to find an unexpected visitor...

I work at the Unilever factory, as an admin assistant, but I remember this particular day because I had a training course. I was wearing a grey wool sleeveless dress with a white blouse underneath, dark grey tights and over the knee grey leather boots, just because I thought I looked good in them more than anything.

As it was... Anyway, I got home and let myself in, but before I had a chance to do anything other than put my keys down I saw this masked woman standing there, smiling as she pointed what looked like a pistol at me.

She looked at me, and told me to be quiet, motioning that I should come into my front room. As I did so, I saw she had already emptied my jewellery boxes into a small bag – but I could also see lengths of rope at the top of the bag, so I guessed what was coming.

I asked if I could take my boots off, but she just shook her head and told me to lie face down on the couch. When I did that, I felt her pull my hands behind my back, and then the rope as it rubbed on my bare wrists as she tied them together.

She knew what she was doing, and soon I was unable to move them apart. Looking back, I watched as she used a second length of rope to bind my ankles tightly together, and I heard the squeaking as my legs rubbed together.

Well, she then tied my legs together below and above my knees, and then pulled my ankles back, securing them to my wrists. I tried wriggling round, with little or no effect, before she held my nose.

Eventually, I had to open my mouth, and she pushed what turned out to be a knot in the middle of a rolled up scarf between my teeth, taking the scarf round my head and knotting the ends together as it trapped my long brown hair against my neck.

I managed to roll onto my side, trying to see if I could reach the knot with my fingers, and failing miserably – at which point she turned the gas fire in the front room full on, and left me there while she went to other rooms in the house.

Now, despite the fact I was wearing woollen clothes and long boots, it wasn’t a cold night, so as I struggled to get free or get that knot of cloth out of my mouth, I started to sweat – a lot.

And I’m not joking when I say that – I could feel the dampness on my feet, running down my head and my back, and it was not comfortable at all. I eventually stopped struggling, trying not to exert myself, but I could feel the dampness under my arms, on my chest, down my back...

Which is when I looked at the door and saw her standing there, watching me, almost – well, almost seeming to enjoy just how uncomfortable I was. I could have sworn she licked her lips, before she picked up the bag and disappeared again through the door – this time outside.

I was beginning to wonder how much longer I was going to be like this when I heard footsteps, and a uniformed policewoman came in. She had seen the open door, and wanted to be sure everything was all right.

Well I was – eventually, after I was freed and stood under a cool shower for fifteen minutes. I don’t get it, though – why did she do that?

A question that has puzzled a number of the local police forces – when Terry Baines, the wife of the Manchester United footballer encountered this woman, she was left in no doubt as to what her likes and dislikes were.

I’d planned to meet up with some of the other WAGs before the home game, but I had been held up leaving by a phone call from my mother. So it would have been about eleven thirty when I was trying to find my car keys. I was wearing a blue jersey with a picture on the front of a boy holding a sack, black leggings and a pair of white over the knee boots with three inch heels.

Well – you never know when Hello are going to try and take a photo. Anyway, I remembered that I had them in my hand when I was talking to him as he worked out, so I made my way down to our private gym – and that was when I saw her.

She was dressed from head to toe in black, including the balaclava over her head and her black lips. She looked at me, and then pointed a gun at me, telling me to take a seat on a piece of gym equipment. It was like an elongated seat, with a bar that the legs went over and a mechanism that moved his legs up and down.

I could see she was wearing a small rucksack, which she took off with her free hand as she told me to put my hands together in prayer. I was too scared to do anything except what she said, watching as she took some cord and wrapped it around and between my arms, forcing them tightly together.

She then pulled my wrists up and over my head, walking behind me and securing them to an iron bar behind the head rest I was leaning on. She then took some more rope, and secured my upper body to the back rest, two bands of rope sitting above and below my chest as they seemed to stretch my jumper over my breasts.

I asked what she was doing, to which she replied she was making sure I could not raise the alarm – and then she held my nose until I opened my mouth, and pushed a sponge ball inside, covering my lips with white tape after I had closed them together.

Now, that in itself would keep me there and quiet – but that’s when she took it to the next level. First, she moved my legs so that the bar sat under my knees, and then tied my ankles together and back so that I could not move my legs off the bar. She also tied my legs together, above and below my knees, to make sure they really stayed there.

But they didn’t stay still – because she started the machine at a low setting, so that my legs were lifted up and down, and I had no bloody way of stopping it.

She smiled – yes, she smiled, and then left the room, I presume to steal what she wanted. There was nothing I could do except stay there, feeling the motion in my legs and then the sweat as I got hotter and hotter. I’m not sure what was worse – the sweat running down my head, or the dampness behind my knees as my legs moved up and down, and I felt the squeak rather than felt it.

No – the worst thing was the two rapidly enlarging damp spots on my jumper, where the sweat on my nipples was soaking through the wool...

When she eventually came back in, she just stood and looked at me, as I tried to plead with her to turn the machine off. She didn’t – instead she walked towards me, and traced over the damp spots on my jumper with her gloved fingers, and then gently pressing down on them!

I won’t describe how it made me feel – I will say the smile on her black lips was the thing I remember the most, as she turned and left me. She did at least turn the machine off, but it was hours before he came back and found me...

Whoever this woman was, she seemed to be taking real pleasure in the way her victims were made to perspire. This only seemed to increase her plans – as Joanne Pilton found out one afternoon in her Chester home...

She took me completely by surprise – I was just sitting in my front room, drinking some tea after doing the shopping, when she hand gagged me and told me to be quiet.

I’m told now what I was wearing may have attracted her attention – although what someone could find interesting in a black jumper with two panda bears on the front of I’m not sure. Cute, yes – that’s why it’s one of my favourite jumpers. But interesting?

Anyway, I personally think it was the other half of my outfit – a pair of thigh high wader boots in chocolate brown leather, and old jeans. But whatever the reason, I couldn’t say anything about it – the hand that was keeping me quiet also had a length of some sort of white tape on it which she pressed against my lips, which sealed them as she took her hand away.

So I wasn’t in a position to say anything, as she pushed my body forward and then pulled my arms behind my back, wasting no time in crossing my wrists and then securing them together with rope. She then produced – lord only knows from where – a long length of rope and started to bind my arms to my side. I could see the top band above my chest, as it was pulled tighter with each pass, and then under, over, under...

As she pulled the last pass tight, I hoped that was all she was planning on doing, but instead she took the rope under one arm, pulled it up and around the back of my neck (lifting my ponytail out of the way as she did so) and then under the other arm. This did two things – first, it literally fused my arms to my sides, and secondly it rubbed my chest in a way that was...

Difficult to describe is the best way of describing it, as she made me kneel on the floor, and I looked back as she crossed my ankles and lashed them tightly together. She doubled the rope over at first, and then tied the rope around and between my legs so that it held them firmly together.

I hoped that was all she was going to do, but instead she doubled over another length of rope, and tied it round my waist. I wondered why she had left half the rope hanging down in front of me – but I soon found out why as she reached between my legs, pulled the rope back, and...

Well, she told me not to move – and no damn way I was going to move with that rope placed there. I could only listen as she went and searched the rest of the house, and wonder how she was going to leave me. Even with that, I had to move from time to time, and it rubbed me up something awful...

Eventually, she came back, and I watched as she laid one of bed blankets out on the floor. I wondered why she had put it there – and then I squealed as she made me lie on my stomach on the blanket, and secured my legs together below and above my knees, taking the rope between my legs in both places and making it so tight that the leather squeaked if I even tried to move.

This made it even worse when she rolled me up in the blanket, and started to use a roll of duct tape to make sure it stayed round my body. I could feel myself getting hotter and hotter as I watched her look at me.

That was what she did, she sat and watched me as I started to sweat, and I felt my body getting wetter and wetter where the ropes were pressing on me. The blanket meant there was no way for that heat to escape either, as I squirmed round and started to moan.

Which seemed to really make her hot as well – and not in that sort of way, as she began to touch herself between her legs. It was only when she looked at the clock, and heard a car pull up outside, that she jumped up and ran out of the back of the house.

When my wife came in a few minutes later, she screamed when she saw me, and rushed to get me free. I was so grateful she turned up at that point, because if she hadn’t...

The most recent report of this intruder was also the most serious, as Yvonne Craig was taken on an unusual journey...

It was the hottest day in May, and I was coming home from lunch with the girls. I like to wear boots, and that day I had on a red round necked sweater, short black skirt, dark tights and knee length black leather boots with studded ankle straps and tops.

Anyway, I got home, opened the garage door and drove in, turning the engine off and leaving the driver’s door open as I closed the garage – and it was as the door swung down that I felt the metal disc at my back, and heard the soft female voice tell me to put my hands behind my back. I asked what was going on, but that only made the disc press more firmly on my back, so I did what I was told.

I heard the ripping sound, and then the tugging on my skin as some sort of tape was sued to secure my wrists together. Whoever this woman was then used the tape to secure my arms to my sides – silver duct tape, as I could see as she passed it round my body above and below my chest. She then told me to open my mouth, and as I did so I felt a cloth fill my mouth, and then the duct tape as she wound it tightly round my head, covering my mouth and keeping me quiet.

I need to wear glasses, and I had on a large black framed pair – a pair that was then taken off me, as I was told to close my eyes, and I felt the tape pressing on my eyelids as it was wound around my head to cover my eyes. I was then made to walk a little distance, as I heard the boot of my car being opened up.

You can guess what happened next – I was made to sit down, as I felt her use the tape to ruin a pair of thousand pound boots by securing my ankles together, and my legs below my knees – never mind the way it pulled on my tights as they were secured above my knees.

I was then bundled onto my side, and I heard the boot slam shut – above me! I was in the boot of my car – and I could feel it starting up and then moving out of my garage!

Now, it was a tight fit, but what was worse was she put the heaters on when it was already a hot day – and I felt the sweat building on me as we drove along, with no chance of been able to call for help. All I could do was lie there, hoping she (whoever she was) was not going to drive for too long, and would at least let me go.

So when the car stopped, I hoped she would at least open the boot and let me see where I was. No chance – I heard the car door open and close, and then nothing except people walking by outside.

And it was getting hotter – the heater had been turned off with the car engine, but the sun must have been shining outside, and that just made the car hotter and hotter. I almost passed out before the boot was opened, and I heard a man shout “shit – someone’s taped up in here.”

I felt hands lifting me out as someone else called for a pair of scissors, and eventually the tape was cut away from my eyes and mouth. I blinked and looked round to see I was at the beach on the Wirral, as someone let me drink from a bottle of water.

I later found out whoever it was had robbed me, and I had returned as she was leaving, but why would she make me sweat like that?

The was the question – was she getting some sort of perverse pleasure from leaving those she robbed to sweat, or was she exploring, building to something more? Police are still trying to figure out what her motives are...

“It’s perfectly simple,” the black masked woman said as she looked at the Asian woman lying on the couch, “he’s right – I do get a thrill from watching people like you get sweaty in this situation.”

The girl mewled as she lay on her side, wriggling round as damp patches developed on her pink cashmere wool dress, under her armpits, on her chest, between her legs. Bands of rope held her wrists behind her back and her arms to her sides, at her chest and waist, while her legs were held with ropes at her ankles and below her knees. A band of white tape was wrapped tightly around her head, covering her mouth and holding her black hair to the back of her neck, the ends damp with sweat as well.

Her eyes widened as the woman walked over, her black lips pursed as she said “why don’t we see just how hot and bothered I can get you, hmm?”

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