By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
A GROUP of community crusaders carried out a dramatic citizen’s arrest in Lyndhurst on the weekend after a spate of home burglaries in the suburb in the last fortnight.
The residents saw a man acting suspiciously outside an Alysha Avenue property just after noon on Saturday and restrained the man until police arrived and arrested him.
Two of the man’s accomplices fled the scene, one driving off in a white Toyota Hiace van.
It’s understood the arrest led to a police raid on a Dandenong residence that night where stolen property and a double edged sword were seized.
The man, in his 20s, has been charged in relation to residential and commercial burglaries, including the theft from a Subway in Narre Warren last month, and carrying out an indictable offence while on bail.
He has also been charged with drugs and weapons offences. Police also said he was in possession of stolen house keys.
Detective Senior Constable Daniel Jacobi said local residents had been on the lookout for suspicious behaviour after a number of burglaries in Lyndhurst over the past two weeks, in which a white van was thought to be involved, and had set up a Facebook page to alert the community.
He said a resident had seen a man acting suspicious near a white van on Saturday and had contacted others to help confront and restrain the man.
While Det Sen Const Jacobi welcomed the arrest, he warned the community against vigilantism.
“We don’t really want people to do this sort of thing,” he said.
“We’d prefer they would call police because we don‘t know how the offender is going to act towards them, but in this case everyone is OK and it’s a good result.
“But it could have had a different outcome.”
It’s believed the driver of the van, also thought to be involved in the thefts, is Asian with a solid build and aged in his mid-20s, and was wearing brown tracksuit pants and a brown hoodie at the time.
There is no description available for the third man.
“We believe these guys have been driving around a little bit, and we’re looking for any information on them, if anyone has had any dealings with them,” Det Sen Const Jacobi said.
“It’s possible they’re door knocking houses to see if people are home, and if they are home, they try the house next door.”
