THERE’S only so much a red-blooded Aussie male will cop – and that doesn’t include finding a bloke inside robbing his house when he gets home from the shops.
That’s the situation Shoreham carpenter Jack Male found himself in early on Saturday morning when he arrived back to find the unwelcome visitor.
Able to laugh about it yesterday, Mr Male, 27, said he and the burglar stopped dead in their tracks when they came face to face with each other.
Mr Male noted that his short, wiry, adversary – aged 25-30, lightly built with brown hair – was carrying a baseball bat. But neither had much time to think before the action started.
“I had no hesitation in tackling him; I just saw red,” Mr Male said. “We were fighting inside briefly before I dragged him outside and grabbed the bat off him and threw it into the paddock.
“I had him in a headlock for a good five minutes and managed to call 000 while he was trying to get away and we ended up in Tucks Rd.
“I thought we were on our own but then I noticed a car – an XTrail – with another guy in it and he started to come at me, trying to run me down, but I ducked out of the way and he missed me. I thought, ‘I’ve got to be on my wits here, there’s two of them’.
“The first guy jumped in the car and they tried to reverse back into me but missed me again. Then they were away.”
Mr Male, who has lived at the property two years, lost a $160 iPod and a laptop in the raid which is being investigated by Hastings CIU.
Leading Detective Senior Constable Nick Sweetman said the aggravated burglary was the third carried out by the men early on Saturday morning, judging by their method and approach and witnesses’ descriptions.
Other raids were at houses in Kentucky Rd, Merricks, where they allegedly stole a motor bike, a “postie” bike, surfboards, boogie board and other items valued at $2000, and at Browne Rd, Red Hill, where they stole power and other tools from a garage.
The men’s getaway car, a late model, champagne-coloured Nissan XTrail, has a number plates starting with SHU.
Anyone with information can call Detective Sweetman on 5970 7800 or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.
