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A Melbourne man dressed in just his underwear has described how he chased down and restrained a teenager who tried to break into his house this morning.
Grant Brown, the 40-year-old owner of the house, told police he heard a noise inside his house in Hawthorn just before 3.30am.
As he made his way through the house, he came across two teenagers allegedly searching the ground floor of his home.
He then confronted the pair, who are accused of running from the scene.
Brown spoke to Today this morning, and revealed what happened when he initially saw the boys in his home.
“[I wanted to] give them a fright, started yelling and chased them out,” he said.
“One of them was trying to jump over a neighbour’s fence and went down a laneway, and he was in a dead end, and I pulled him back when he was halfway up the fence.”
Brown chased them and caught up to one of the boys, a 15-year-old.
Because Brown did not have his phone on him, he made the alleged intruder call the police himself.
“I pulled up his top to see if he had a weapon, and then this guy is like, ‘don’t hurt me, you can call the cops'”, Brown said.
“I’m like, ‘alright, you call the cops’, and I just pulled out his phone and made him [dial].
“I just held onto him until the cops arrived.”
All of this was caught on dramatic CCTV footage from a neighbouring house, with neighbours now dubbing Brown “Captain Underpants” after the character from the popular children’s book and movie franchise of the same name.
Brown said the boys told him they were in the area for a jog, but he claims they were trying to steal his car.
Responding police also tracked down the other teenager, a 14-year-old boy, and he was taken into custody.
The pair were interviewed by police and charged for two aggravated burglaries, along with an earlier incident occurring in the nearby Elphin Grove.
In that case, a resident was woken by the bark of his dog at around 2.30am, where he found one of the boys trying to enter through an unlocked doggy door.
The owner of the house pushed the boy through the door, and the teenagers fled.
They have now been charged with two counts of aggravated burglary with people present.
Police are currently making an application to have the teenagers remanded.