KEY POINTS:
Eighty-year-old Jack Norton is being formally praised by police for confronting an armed burglar in Hamilton at the weekend.
And he says he would do the same thing again tomorrow if the situation arose.
On Sunday, Mr Norton was walking past the Heaphy Tce dairy on his way to another store.
"I heard a commotion in the shop, people yelling. There was a Maori chap who was menacing someone over the counter.
"All of a sudden he bolted over the counter and there was a Chinese lady trying to hold him at bay."
The female shop worker was holding a golf club, which the offender had grabbed at the other end.
"He held a knife in the other hand," Mr Norton said. "I just could not walk away from it."
He walked in to the shop and tried to reason with the man.
"I was keeping him at arm's length and said, 'Look this won't get you anywhere. This is not the thing to do'."
He held on to one end of the golf club with the woman.
"He was a fairly big man, I suppose about 25. I could just see his nose and mouth area; he was wearing a hood."
The burglar, bleeding profusely from the nose after what Mr Norton believed had been a swipe from the golf club, said his reasoning must have had an effect.
"He said, 'We've got nothing, we are poor', and that sort of thing."
It was then that the man took what he could, including some tobacco, and bolted off, dropping his knife on the way.
Hamilton City police area commander Rob Lindsay said he wanted to go on record as recognising Mr Norton's bravery. "Given his age and the risk to himself, we believe Mr Norton's actions go well and truly beyond what can be expected of the average citizen."
Police advice was to comply with demands when confronted by robbers, although Mr Norton's actions were to be applauded, Mr Lindsay said.
Police say g the offender was an overweight Maori male aged about 25. He was wearing a red and yellow rugby jersey with a red hooded sweatshirt underneath, jeans and white shoes.
