A TEENAGE burglar was paralysed by fear at the sound of a policeman's footsteps, a court heard. On February 5 last year, locksmith's apprentice Chan Wai-kei, 19, broke into a furniture shop next to the Tsuen Wan branch of the Hong Kong Chinese Bank, the District Court was told. He allegedly bored a hole through the wall between the shop and the bank, wriggled through it and entered the room holding the bank's safe. After unsuccessfully trying to open it, he clambered back into the furniture shop, the court was told. But the Crown said he became terrified when he heard the sound of a police radio and fled through one of the shop's windows, shinning along scaffolding to an adjacent building. He had climbed onto the roof and dropped onto a staircase but was paralysed with fear when he heard the sound of a policeman coming up the staircase. Unable to move, he was quickly discovered and arrested, the court heard. His clothes were covered in dust and drilling tools were found in the adjacent building, the Crown said. Chan pleaded not guilty to burglary. The court was told that the bank's safe held about $1.3 million. The trial continues before Deputy Judge Davies.