'S...., this is the real thing'

The burglars' abandoned car, with the stolen television set still in the back.

"S...., this is the real thing."

So a Kaitaia man thought moments after he took action to foil, then catch, three people who burgled a neighbour's home last week. And while a small voice in the back of his mind told him that it could go horribly wrong, he stuck to his guns.

It all started at around one o'clock on Thursday afternoon, when the man, who did not wish to be identified, noticed a vehicle backing into a neighbour's driveway. It's a dead-end road just outside Kaitaia, and he has no trouble spotting strange cars, but this one was more than strange. He knew the neighbours weren't home, and that they had been burgled twice in recent times.

So he followed the car into the driveway in his ute. The man sitting in the car tooted, two others responding by sprinting out of the house. One of them was carrying a flat screen television set, which he threw into the back of the car. And they drove off, albeit not before the neighbour had ostentatiously dialled 111, and written down their car's registration.

So began a pursuit, a short distance towards Kaitaia up Donald Lane, across the bridge, into Donald Road and past Oturu School, when the neighbour noticed dust rising on unsealed Quarry Road. He backtracked in time to see the burglars' car coming back towards him, turning back on to Donald Road.

The car was a good deal quicker than his ute and he had trouble keeping up, but arrived at the intersection of Donald Road and Allen Bell Drive to see the car abandoned on the footpath, two of the occupants bolting over farm land while the third strolled away along Allen Bell Drive.

The neighbour got the number of the house the thief went to, and moments later police had him in custody.

A police dog was summoned from Whangarei, but had not arrived several hours later, by which time the fugitives had long gone.

Meanwhile the neighbour, who had been talking to Police Communications throughout, said the person he was talking to, who he said had obviously had a map, had been "brilliant".

"I was really impressed," he said, "although a couple of times I thought I was going to lose the car.

"It all went pretty well though.

"It could have gone wrong but what the hell? That's what Neighbourhood Watch is all about. It certainly got the blood pumping."

"Two minutes later I wouldn't have been there and I wouldn't have seen the car," he added, "but I couldn't believe how bold these people were. You'd think they would have dropped the TV and taken off, but they thought they could get away with it. It turned out to be their unlucky day."

Crime was becoming increasingly common on his road though, recent incidents including the broad daylight of near-neighbours who got home to find their door kicked in.

"These people should realise they're being watched," he said.

"They are going to find this harder and harder to get away with."