Who is The Night Watcher?

A home invader with nearly 20 years of unanswered offences is still on the loose in Southern England, and has, to date, yet to be caught - with over a million pounds in stolen swag.

Who is The Night Watcher of England?

The Night Watcher has been terrorizing Southern England for a while now, but his actions recently have gone cold and so has the trail.

But make no mistake, this is a dangerous individual that needs to be found - immediately.

The Night Watcher is an armed burglar that has stolen more than £1,000,000 worth of items in violent and threatening raids.

The police have worked hard on Operation Prometheus - the lead operation in finding The Night Watcher - and the police had 224 persons of interest that they looked at.

The Night Watcher has been the subject of several appeals, there was a Crimewatch episode with reconstructions, which sought information on the burglar and there is a plethora online looking at the manhunt and the failed chase to capture this sick criminal. Sky News, The Daily Mail, the BBC and ITV have all reported on this dangerous threatening criminal.

The Night Watcher is efficient at what he does. His raids have an exacting and military precision to them. He is violent, always masked and wields a sawn-off shotgun. Towering over six feet, he has used many intimidating tactics during the robberies and doesn't care about hitting women. He's punched and kicked pregnant women, broken the jaw of a woman in her sixties and does not care about the lives he has ruined.

He has been described as having a London accent, is white and tall - and speculatively, he appears to be ex-military. He is dangerous, extremely dangerous and for nearly ten years now, he has never been caught.

Who is he? Why is he at large?

A home is a sacred place, and this piece of work is regularly invading and causing chaos within the sanctity of the family home and he's targeting hard-working people with a lot of valuables.

Can the internet come together and help find him?

The Night Watcher's Crimes

It was the Stiff family that first brought the Night Watcher to national attention.

The Stiffs were a wealthy family from Epsom in Surrey. And they were held up at gunpoint by the thief. One of the victims of this robbery was pregnant at the time, this was Katie Stiff.

Katie was kicked in the stomach by the invader, as he threatened to kill the three women at home and demanded to know the location of the expensive goods (stored within the safe). The father, Robert Stiff (pictured below), a successful businessman, was not home at the time of the robbery.

The robbery occurred close to the Kingswood Gold and Country Club at 5.40pm on 12th November 2014.

The Night Watcher forced the women to hand over their jewellery before violently attacking them and fleeing with the expensive goods. The intruder wore a balaclava, entered the house through the back of the six-bedroom house and carried a sawed-off shotgun, which he handled with frightening confidence.

The masked man had a fluent, articulate English accent (which sounded Southern and possibly London).

A man (possibly the Night Watcher) was seen wearing blue on CCTV footage (later scrutinised by the police) at Kingswood train station, scoping the area out for three hours. This fits the timeline of the attacks on the Stiffs. Further footage showed somebody walking around Kingswood Gold Course adjacent to the Stiffs.

This is where the name the Night Watcher emerged, as it was believed that the attacker had a MO of scoping out his prey and his knowledge of the victim's houses alluded to the fact that he was always doing his homework on the schedule, routine, layout and all the possible facets to his victims. He seemed to know the houses very well.

After the attack, the Stiffs understandably upped their security game tenfold, and the Night Watcher never returned to the Stiff family again.

To this day, however, they live in fear.

The first burglary linked to the same tactics as The Night Watcher (and in the same area of England) goes back to 2006, almost ten years before he attacked the Stiffs. That's how long this coward has been terrorising the South of England. The police identified the 2006 case to a link to the more recent robberies, but they have not released information on this.

After the Stiff robbery and the Crimewatch appeal, the shotgun-wielding madman started to get some attention. Some, even dubbed the unknown criminal as a modern-day "Robin Hood" because he was taking solely from the rich. But I can't imagine a Robin Hood-type figure with noble intentions kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, nor did this coward ever bother to give the stolen money to the poor.

The Night Watcher then hit a house on Fishery Road in Maidenhead, Berkshire. This was just a couple of months after the Stiff family were attacked and matched the MO of the previous attacks. The Night Watcher wielded a shotgun, stole valuable items after entering the home and was in full black gear including a balaclava, dark trousers, a rain jacket and ski gloves.

The Maidenhead robbery gave the police further footage of the intruder. Again, the Night Watcher demonstrated how highly skilled he was at what he did. He seemed to know the layout of the house, left the backdoor open as a safety precaution and showed evidence of adept tactical decision-making. This extraordinary level of competence pointed to history in the armed service or possibly the police.

The Night Watcher then hit his most high-profile target. In January 2016, The Night Watcher robbed the home of Lord and Lady March at Goodwood House in West Sussex. Using a ladder to get into the house through an upstairs window before breaking in, he pushed and assaulted Lord March and stole over £700,000 worth of priceless and rare antiques, including a diamond tiara and ring given by King Charles II.

Some of the items were too unique and priceless to sell, so presumably would have been melted down and used in other items. The jewellery stolen from Goodwood House also included a diamond necklace worth £200,000.00 and an antique Rolex and Girard Perregaux watches.

It became obvious that the Night Watcher had no limits to the extent of his egregious crimes and that he targeted the wealthy for extremely valuable items.

Lord March had connections to royalty and was the founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

He was a big name in the UK. He lost items of indescribable value.

The Night Watcher hit big targets.

After Lord and Lady March, the Night Watcher struck in Surrey back to the area of Kingswood. He targeted the Morris family on October 26th, 2017, in an evening raid.

It was the usual routine and sheer hell for Susan Morris. Susan was bound with cable ties and The Night Watcher made her to feel his shotgun (to demonstrate that it was a real one). He beat her until she gave up the location of the family jewels.

The Night Watcher told Susan Morris that he would shoot her husband should he come home during the theft and stole family heirlooms from Mrs Morris' mother-in-law who died just a year prior and a brooch from her own mother.

Susan Morris suffered a broken jaw, a missing tooth and many bruises in this attack. She told police that she was positive she would be raped and thankfully, she wasn't.

The information that the police hold is scant, and he seems to have quietened down in recent years. The police have collected DNA at one of the scenes, but they are unable to make a match with anyone. They have detained and interviewed many suspects and people of interest but have not brought any action against anyone as of yet. The police have petitioned the armed forces for information, but due to the confidential nature of this sector - they are unable to obtain any DNA matches.

The evidence strongly indicates that the Nigh Watcher had military precision in the way he executed the raids, the way he carried the gun and how he scooped out and monitored his targets. There was a deep level of sophistication to the raids. The Night Watcher could be using a fence to move the goods he's stolen, and many items have not just a priceless or sentimental value but could be identifiable amongst the antique industry.

These goods have probably been moulded down and moved along as parts, thus losing an immense amount of their original value.

Police say they are looking for a man who:

Is white
Has a stocky/muscular build
Is about 6ft (1.8m) tall
Speaks with a South of England accent
Is a lone man
May have specialist knowledge and skills
Uses a sawn-off shotgun and violence to threaten victims
Appears aware of the layout of houses, who is at home and location of safes/valuables

Where did the Night Watcher prowl?

12 November 2014 - Kingswood, Surrey
21 January 2015 - Maidenhead area, Berkshire
13 January 2016 - Chichester area, Sussex
22 November 2016 - Sevenoaks area, Kent
January 2017 - Maidstone area, Kent
24 April 2017 - Virginia Water area, Surrey
26 October 2017 - Kingswood, Surrey

The five new offences all took place in Surrey between 2006 and 2015, but no further details have been released.

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