The man had been in his workshop on a lifestyle block when he went back to the house about 12.30pm on Thursday last week for lunch.
The man, a grandfather and an engineer, noticed a locked door at his Two Chain Rd, Burnham property, had been jemmied open. Timber from its architrave was lying on the kitchen floor.
He then realised the movement in his master bedroom – which he glimpsed as he walked towards the house – must have been an intruder, not his partner having unexpectedly come home as first thought.
“My hair damn near stood on end,” the man said.
He then walked down to the master bedroom. The door was closed; from the hallway, he yelled: "Come out you bastard, I know you’re in there!"
To his surprise, the intruder then appeared in the hallway from another bedroom.
With an armload of goods from the home, the burglar tried to make his way past the man.
"That’s when I was either foolish or brave and thought: ‘If I have to do anything, I have to do it now’.
"Rightly or wrongly, I lunged at him. He kept standing, he had greater weight than me, or greater strength than me.”
The resident was pushed backwards over an armchair.
The burglar continued to run out but tripped on the clothing he was carrying and fell to his knees.
He dropped the clothing, which was a camouflage outfit of pants and a jacket, as well as a bracelet box, web camera packet, and old leather wallet.
The burglar got to his feet and ran. The man followed him outside and took a photo of the vehicle he got into – a Mercedes mobile home, with the registration KPD-407.
The man suspected a second person in a separate vehicle was also involved in the crime as a lookout for the burglar.
He talked to the driver of a Mazda Autozan parked about 50 metres away, but did not get a coherent response when he asked the man if he saw the mobile home owner who had just robbed him.
Items the burglar got away with included an engraved chunky men’s gold bracelet, about $15 cash, and silver cufflinks.
The man was left with a pulled muscle in his hip from falling backwards over the chair.
He also had to repair the entrance door, tidy up the ransacked master bedroom, and search through possessions to see if anything else was stolen.
“It shook me a fair bit,” he said.
He said the burglar was aged about 40.
Police attending the scene afterwards told him the burglar was known to them.
Senior Sergeant Rachel Walker said police had an active line of inquiry regarding the crime in relation to the vehicle that was seen at the address.
She urged members of the public to contact police on 105 if they saw the vehicle.
“Do not approach the occupants,” Walker said.
• If you see the vehicle with registration KPD-407, please contact 105 and quote file number 230310/3913.
