The attempted break and enter to Alison Budde’s East Wagga home has rocked the mother of three, who believes juveniles and drugs were behind last week’s crime wave that saw 20 homes hit in just three days.

Spooked by noises she tried to first brush away as a possum on Monday night, Ms Budde put her three-year-old to bed the following night to discover the fly screen flapping on the bedroom window. 

The next morning, a blood-stained grey hooded jumper was in her backyard, hose the intruders had tried to wash away evidence with was disconnected and strewn across the ground, and a six-inch knife sat beneath her kitchen window.

“You want to put your kids to bed and know they’re safe,” she said. “You close all your windows, put fly screens up, lock the doors and you’re still not safe. I’d hate to think how much further they would have made it if I’d been asleep.”

The ordeal continued when her father, Peter Budde, phoned police about 11.15am Wednesday to report the incident. Despite numerous follow-up calls to police, officers did not arrive to the Mason Street home until 24 hours later.

Police apologised to Mr Budde and said the alarming delay was due to the unprecedented crime spike.

“(Police) are outnumbered (by offenders),” Mr Budde said.

“I’m not putting police down one iota because they do a marvellous job under difficult circumstances.”

Duty officer Inspector Peter Robertson conceded last week’s crime spike affected police response time, but said the arrest of two teenagers believed responsible for the bulk of the car thefts on Thursday would drive down crime and subsequent wait times.

“We were doing all we could to stop these drug-affected (juveniles) driving around and I do apologise to those who felt they weren’t getting appropriate service,” Inspector Robertson said.