A dad in Western Australia pounced on an alleged carjacker wearing nothing but a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants underwear.
Part of the citizen's arrest was caught on police bodycam shortly after 7am (local time) on Tuesday, 9News reports.
The man, tradie Dean Bathurst, along with his two sons, kept the man restrained for 30 minutes, unaware that the alleged offender had also held a woman at gunpoint while stealing her car just hours earlier.
Bathurst's daughter spotted the stranger pulling wires under the steering wheel of his ute, which was parked at his house in Bindoon, 70km north of Perth.
Wearing nothing but his SpongeBob SquarePants undies, Bathurst quickly sprang into action.
"I saw this guy lying down on the ground and so, just natural instinct, rushed in to help."
"You know, you got the fight or flight. I've got a strong fight," Bathurst said. "It was like, 'you're not taking my car'.
"It was probably a good 10-minute wrestle around on the ground, trying to get him in a position where we could stop him from hurting us, or hurting him, or running away."
Bathurst and his sons spent 30 minutes restraining the man while they waited for police to make the 50km drive from Toodyay.
The ordeal occurred after an alleged crime spree by the offender. He is accused of carjacking a woman's vehicle in south-east Perth as she backed out of her driveway.
Police said the man forced his way into the vehicle before indecently assaulting the woman and threatening her while holding what appeared to be a gun. He then drove an hour north to Bindoon, where he dumped the car, broke into a house and stole another vehicle.
A 31-year-old man from Brabham was arrested and appeared in the Armadale Magistrates Court yesterday, facing a raft of charges including armed robbery, deprivation of liberty, unlawful and indecent assault and stealing two vehicles. He was denied bail.
Barthurst, asked about his choice of outfit during the incident, said: "I might actually go to bed dressed a bit better than my SpongeBob jocks from now on.
"Good thing I wasn't wearing my Superman jocks, because that could have been a completely different situation.
"But fully expect to be made into a meme after this."
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including new speed cameras rolling out, fireworks start fires around the country, and Bluey’s new Christmas project. (Source: 1News)
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