Pyjama-wearing dad chases and catches burglar (From Dorset Echo)

Pyjama-wearing dad chases and catches burglar

8:30am Tuesday 9th February 2010 in

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A BRAVE dad caught a burglar after he chased him down the street in his pyjamas.

Teacher James Grummett ran barefoot after the thief who made off with a laptop after breaking into the family home in Weymouth.

Mr Grummett was woken by the thief who broke in while he slept upstairs with his wife Amanda and their 14-month old son Archie in Jestys Avenue.

After grabbing and escorting the thief home to ring the police the man ran off again before a man overheard and helped apprehend him a second time.

Mr Grummett, 31, said he woke up at 1am on Saturday and first thought Archie had woken up.

He said: “I went to the landing and saw a light on downstairs and knew there was something up.

“I just put on a really deep voice and shouted ‘get out of my house’ to scare whoever it was.

“I caught a glimpse of somebody darting out the door and raced down.

“I saw a young lad running down the middle of the street.”

Mr Grummett, a teacher at Royal Manor Arts College on Portland, decided he could catch him.

He said: “I just legged it.

“I didn’t have any shoes on. I was just in my pyjamas.

“At the bottom of the road he dropped the laptop bag because he could see I was getting closer.

“I shouted ‘you’d better stop because I will catch you’ and he did.

“If he’d been big and stocky I might’ve thought twice.”

Mr Grummett grabbed him and said he was going to call the police as the intruder apologised and promised to pay for damages.

The young man agreed to go back and Mr Grummett let go as they walked back.

He smelt alcohol on his breath and felt safer keeping his distance in case the man had a knife.

Mrs Grummett called the police but while waiting the man bolted towards Old Station Road.

Mr Grummett caught up with him again and was chasing him around a car – still in his pyjamas.

He said: “He was on one side and I was on the other so there was a bit of dancing going on. I was saying ‘look I’m much fitter than you I’m going to catch you’ but he said he had to try and get away.”

Nightclub bouncer Andy Flack was in his fiancee’s back garden smoking a cigarette.

Mr Flack, 25, from Wheatlands, Portland, came out and held the intruder’s arm behind his back.

Mr Flack said: “James said the lad had broken into his house.

“That’s when I detained him and helped hold him until the police arrived.

He denied he had been brave in helping Mr Grummett.

He added: “It is and it isn’t because I do security for a living.”

Mr and Mrs Grummett fear they forgot to lock a back door.

Mrs Grummett, 31, added: “I know James can take care of himself but I was worrying about what he might face. We felt sorry for the intruder because he was apologetic and saying don’t call the police. But he’s got to own up to his actions.

“It might put a stop to it.”

A Dorset Police spokesman confirmed an 18-year-old local man was arrested.