A group of young women living together in the student quarter are urging others to keep their flats secured and be vigilant after they chased away an early morning intruder.
Some of the flatmates arrived back at their Leith St address about 4.40am on Thursday to find a man snooping around their flat.
The man fled after being startled by some of the flatmates who then followed the him on to the street while on the phone to the police.
Eventually the police were able to locate the group and arrest the intruder.
A 51-year-old Dunedin male appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday on burglary related charges.
One of the flatmates who only wanted to be know as Katie said she was still coming to terms with the incident.
She was alone and sleeping when the man broke in.
"I was the only one here and was pretty much out to it and woke and a was told everything."
Nothing was taken but it appeared the man had snooped around the flat, she said.
"My door was unlocked while I was sleeping so I was obviously pretty shaken to know he could have been there watching me."
When the man was confronted by another flatmate he kept apologising for breaking in.
"He was spinning this yarn about how he was an alcoholic and he doesn't do this often and my flatmate started to feel a bit sorry for him."
Katie said she and her flatmate were now urging their friends to keep their flats secure so nothing similar happens to them.
"Just lock your doors it's not that hard and keeps you so much safer. Just the fact he could have been there watching me sleep and could have done anything still makes me really uncomfortable."
Inspector Kevin Lloyd said as well burglary the police suspected the man was also a possible peeper.
Police could also not discount the possibility there was another man working the area, he said.
"There's quite a tight cluster in that area of similar offences."
The flatmates did everything right and saved police a huge amount of time which they would have had to invest in apprehending the man.
"They did it all themselves."
