Antique dealer smashes burglar's car window

When a nearby shop was raided early yesterday antique dealer Bruce Gray seized the heaviest object at hand - a Victorian cast-iron plant stand from his collection.

As a car tried to leave Antiquities in Remuera with two antique motorbikes on a trailer, Mr Gray heaved the $200 planter at it, smashing the windscreen.

The occupants of the car fled in such haste they forgot to secure their trailer tailgate and lost the bikes.

The 60-year-old, who lives above his shop, Abbey Antiques, had been woken at 3am by the sound of breaking glass and gone to investigate.

Climbing out a first-floor window on to a verandah he saw the vehicle and trailer parked along the road.

"I thought they were going to steal some furniture out of an antique shop further down the road so I thought I would get something very heavy, walk along the verandah and smash the front window so they couldn't drive away easily.

"It's just a logical thing to do. I had no other way of immobilising the vehicle."

Mr Gray said his partner rang the police while he went downstairs for a suitable missile.

"I picked up a cast-iron, three-legged Victorian potplant stand, reasonably heavy," he said.

Mr Gray said the car moved along to the shop next door and parked with the trailer against the doors.

The alarm was going off but Mr Gray could not see the motorbikes - a BSA and a Matchless valued at $5000-$6000 each - on the trailer.

"I didn't know what they were going to do but I knew they were up to no good.

"So I took careful aim and threw [the plant stand] and fortunately got a direct hit in the middle of the windscreen and shattered it.

"But just before the planter hits it [a man] comes around the end of the trailer and is just about to get into the driver's seat.

"The planter smashes to pieces, bounces off the bonnet, but did the trick all right."

Police intercepted the men shortly afterwards and they were charged with burglary.

Antiquities owner Rick McCay said he was grateful to Mr Gray.

"It's not often that someone does something constructive. He made a difference."

Unfortunately, the motorbikes had been "virtually destroyed" and were unlikely to be repaired to be put on sale.