A thief who stole a supply van stuffed with Christmas presents in Melbourne has been caught red-handed due to a fast considering bystander.
The ‘grinch’ was caught in Brighton after he noticed an unattended supply van stuffed with parcels and tried to steal it.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Brighton grinch stopped by good Samaritan.
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However, it was the heroic actions of bystander Darcy, who managed to cease the person and retrieve the van stuffed with presents.
“Out of the nook of my eye, I noticed a man screaming off his head,” Darcy advised 7NEWS.
“It was a supply driver and I simply actually wished to cease the person and ensure he did not get away.”
Darcy jumped into his ute, together with the supply driver, and the pair chased the thief down the highway.
“I mainly simply locked eyes with him (the supply driver) and pointed to get in, and he simply jumped straight in, and I simply stored driving,” he mentioned.
“There was no hesitation, it was like a film scene.”
The pair chased the driving force, and though they’d misplaced him, earlier than they noticed the van down a facet road a couple of kilometers away.
Darcy says they caught the thief carelessly ripping open parcels.
“To see all of the presents… type of being unwrapped and packing containers thrown onto the facet of the highway… it makes me sick to the abdomen,” he mentioned.
Darcy and the supply driver managed to dam the van with the ute, earlier than working onto the Esplanade.
There they managed to hail down a police automobile that occurred to be passing by on the proper time.
Shocked witnesses say they could not consider the velocity at which the entire state of affairs unfolded.
“The police cornered off this van and abruptly the individual was caught, it was simply surreal,” Nicole Kalaitzis advised 7NEWS.
“And I simply heard the man thanking Darcy he mentioned ‘mate, you don’t have any concept what you’ve got executed for me thanks a lot.'”
The thief – a 43-year-old man from Preston – has since been charged for the offence.
The presents have been returned to their rightful house owners.
