GEELONG Advertiser editor Peter Judd wrestled a half-naked intruder for 20 minutes after he discovered him lurking at his teenage daughter's window.
Mr Judd confronted the man just after 6am yesterday after receiving a phone call from his distressed daughter, who was woken by the man's attempts to break into the family's Geelong West house.
He arrived home to the sight of a man at his back door, naked from the waist down.
"I got out of the car and went around the corner and standing against the back glass door was this skinny bloke in his early 20s with no pants on. All he was wearing was a singlet and he was just standing there looking at me," Mr Judd said.
"I yelled at him to leave but he didn't go. He just kept trying to get into the house.
"I then tried to get him off the verandah to get him going and he became really agitated and became really abusive. He then ripped my shirt and we moved around to the carport and there was a bit of a wrestle."
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Enraged , Mr Judd pinned the intruder to the ground before his partner arrived to help.
Together the pair subdued the man until police arrived about 6.20am.
Sen-Constable Duane Hagger of Geelong police said the intruder was agitated and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol when he arrived at the scene.
The intruder, a 22-year-old Highton man, was locked up in police cells for four hours. He was later interviewed and released pending summons.
Sen-Constable Hagger said the man would be charged with wilful and obscene exposure, (remaining) unlawfully on premises, wilful damage and being drunk in a public place.
The man’s pants were later found in the driveway of a neighbour’s home.
Mr Judd said the frightening incident was a clear reminder of the drug and alcohol issues that have plagued Geelong.
‘‘The thing is when I got home, I found a bloke with no pants on trying to get in the back door with my daughter inside and you certainly can’t treat that lightly, especially when you have a fair dinkum feeling that he’s drug affected and that sort of raises all those issues about what’s happening in Geelong at the moment with drugs and alcohol,’’ he said.
‘‘People keep telling you that Geelong’s a safer place and the crime stats show that it’s safer and all this sort of thing. But in the last 18 months I’ve been burgled and now I’ve had a naked intruder on my back door and I don’t live in an area that’s regarded as a high crime area.’’
Geelong police area manager Chief Insp Wayne Carson defended the city’s safety record.
‘‘I think Geelong is a lot safer than it was but unfortunately you get isolated cases like this that, no matter how much you do, are hard to stop,’’ Chief Insp Carson said.
‘‘In regards to drugs, this is a problem we have but we can’t be there for those isolated cases in back yards.’’
Mr Judd said one of his biggest concerns was how his daughter would cope in the aftermath of the incident.
‘‘Imagine what it would have been like for her, seeing that and then finally working herself up to come around the corner and see her dad with his shirt virtually ripped off, sitting on top of this bloke to restrain him in your carport.
It’s no what a young girl should have to think about really,’’ he said.
‘‘The challenge for her now is to feel safe at home at night and that’s what everyone in Geelong should feel like, that they can be safe at home.’’
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2008/04/21/13259_news.html
Also another bashing but whats new
