HAVE a go hero Steve Hillier foiled an attempted break-in on a jewellery shop in Lacock – wearing his wife’s pyjama bottoms.

The father-of-three who lives opposite Watling Jewellers, in East Street in the village had been in bed when he heard a car engine revving and wood cracking.

He said: “I got up to look out of my bedroom window which is at the front of the house – we always have the window open a few inches – but I could not open the window any more because it was locked. So I stretched to the gap and saw two men wearing balaclavas and the lights of a car.

“The men were ramming the door of the jewellers with four-inch fence posts and a Porsche car was manoeuvring ready to push the stake to force the door open when I shouted ‘Oi, get out of it’ through the window.

“They looked up and dropped the stake. I then threw my pyjama bottoms on and sprinted down the stairs.”

The 39-year-old civil engineer said the men abandoned their attempts to break into the family-run jewellers and were in the car and driving away by the time he reached his front door.

“I ran all the way down the street after them to see which way they were going. They were going towards Melksham,” he said.

Meanwhile his wife Toni, 35, called the police who turned up very quickly.

“I came back to the house and went to my knees on the floor, out of breath. That’s when I noticed I was wearing my wife’s yellow and red checked pyjama bottoms.”

His wife was wearing his pyjamas.

The owners of the goldsmiths thanked Mr Hillier the next day for his actions, giving him a £100 voucher to spend in the shop.