'I’m terrified to be in my own home' - South Tyneside woman's harassment ordeal as up to 30 unwanted takeaways A NIGHT get sent to her door for over TWO YEARS

Diane Maines, 58, from Hebburn, says she has been terrified to be in her home for the last two years after being targeted in a ‘suspected stalking’ case, which started in April 2020 and is still going on today.

At the beginning of the first Covid lockdown, Diane, a customer service worker, began receiving knocks on her door for takeaway deliveries, with five or six orders coming each night for several nights, and having no idea why.

In the following months, the problem got worse, with Diane sometimes having 20 or 30 orders sent to her door in one night, all cash on delivery and all with different names, accounts and phone numbers attributed to the orders.

Now, two years later, the issue is continuing, with Diane, who lives on her own, still receiving orders at her door as recently as Friday, December 9.

Diane is no further forward to finding out why this is happening and says the ordeal has left her struggling to sleep and extremely anxious.

She said: “I don’t know what to do. I keep myself to myself and only have a small circle of friends, so I don’t know who would want to do this to me. I feel like I’m going mad. It’s really affecting my mental health and sleeping. Every time I hear a car go up the street I’m anxious. I have no idea why this is happening. It’s getting frightening and I’m terrified to be in my own home.”

“During the first lockdown it was constant, with 20 or 30 orders coming a night, totalling in thousands of pounds worth of food being delivered to my door. Now it can go a few months without happening but then last Friday (December 9) I had another six sent to me. I’ve had to change my life to try and deal with this and I just want it to stop.”

The orders are regularly from different takeaways around South Tyneside, normally ordered through Just Eat and have also included deliveries from as far as Jesmond and Seaham.

To try and stop the deliveries, Diane has even tried blocking her door with wheelie bins, leaving a note warning takeaway drivers that the order is likely a hoax and has also taken the batteries out of her video doorbell.

A year after the deliveries began, Diane reported the matter to the police in March 2021 in an effort to find out who was behind the harassment.

A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm an investigation was launched after a woman reported receiving a series of unwanted takeaways from an unknown person to her address in the Hebburn area.

“Officers are treating the reports as suspected stalking, with reports made between March 2021 and December 2022.

“Extensive enquiries are ongoing and anyone with information which could assist the investigation is asked to get in touch with police using the ‘Tell Us Something’ page on our website quoting crime number: 021963S/21.”