Ellen Barkin confronted a would-be burglar in her New York home on Wednesday (01.11.17).
The 63-year-old actress told police she woke to a noise in an upstairs bedroom in her Greenwich Village abode shortly before 7am and spotted a man on her third floor balcony.
A source told the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column the ‘Ocean’s 13’ actress grabbed the balcony door as the man, who was wearing gloves, tried to open it to get back inside her apartment, only for him to jump from the balcony to an adjoining fire escape to get away.
Though the would-be thief – who was described as aged 20 to 30 and Hispanic and carrying a backpack – didn’t take any property, Ellen noticed a bag and some jewellery had been moved near the balcony from another location in her house.
The source said: "I guess he was fixing to leave with the stuff that he had collected."
The ‘Animal Kingdom’ actress – who has grown-up children Jack and Romy with ex-husband Gabriel Byrne – was unimpressed by the police response to the incident.
She tweeted two hours after the invasion: "@NYPDByrne … only because u have the full name of the father of my children…the first responders were great, here in 70secs! still waiting for the detectives… it’s only been 4 hours," she wrote two hours after the home invasion.
The Bronx-born Barkin then followed up a few minutes later, ".@NYPDByrne @NYPDONeill @NYPDDetectives Did I just hear this right? No detectives here, at all? My heart breaks for another day that will live in infamy but crime is still going on…in my house. @NYPDDetectives Robert Boyce.(sic)"