A QUICK-thinking teenager, her father, an off-duty police officer and his wife have thwarted a thief’s break-in attempt in Tamworth.
A 16-year-old boy, with a number of break-in charges attached to his name from four days earlier, was run down in a foot pursuit and crashed tackled in a South Tamworth park.
His arrest was the combination of team-work by the unlikely combination.
The boy was allegedly attempting to break into a home in Coorigil St, South Tamworth at 5.15pm on Saturday when a 49-year-old neighbouring resident was alerted by his 13-year-old daughter.
The young girl had seen the boy jump over her neighbour’s fence and immediately reported the incident to her father. The man approached the youth who was trying to remove the security screen from a side window.
He called out to him and the youth immediately fled on foot.
The resident, who did not want to be named, followed the boy just as an off-duty Tamworth police officer and his wife pulled up in the street.
The officer jumped out of his vehicle and joined the chase while his wife, in their dual cab utility, drove down a nearby footpath to prevent the youth taking an alternative route.
Through what they say was sheer luck, the trio – without any real plan – managed to corral the youth into the middle of the park, where the off-duty officer tackled him to the ground and waited for police to arrive.
The foot pursuit was over a distance of about 150 metres from Coorigil St to the Lions Park on Werris Creek Rd.
The resident whose house was the target of the break-in was inside asleep at the time and was unaware of what had unfolded.
The 49-year-old man said “the adrenaline kicked in” when the chase began and the arrival of the off-duty officer and his wife was simply perfect timing. He described the break-in attempt as brazen due to the time of day.
The 16-year-old had been out on bail after he was previously charged with a number of aggravated break and enter offences in the same area.
He was charged with attempted break and enter and refused bail for breach of his previous bail conditions.
He is expected to appear in Tamworth Children’s Court today.