In the middle of the night, Melbourne man Edward woke to the sound of his partner and their young child screaming from another room as three masked burglars jumped on their bed, threatening them with a knife.

There was no time for him to grab the baseball bat he'd bought only last week, to protect his family from such terrifying violence. He'd feared something like this, after his neighbours were broken into a fortnight ago.

Edward's partner and their son, aged five, were asleep in bed in their Albion home about 1.30am when three men broke into the house, armed with a hammer and a knife.

The men had prised open a window, before jumping on the bed and threatening the mother and child.