KEY POINTS:
A quick-thinking lawn-mowing contractor helped police to catch an armed burglar yesterday by trapping him in a West Auckland park.
He was one of two men who broke into a house in Swanson Rd, Henderson, about midday.
Police arrested one of the men inside the house. The other jumped over a fence at the back of the property on to Waitemata Park.
Greg Short of Tractor Contracting Services was mowing the rugby fields and saw the burglar on the run.
"He was a young crim who had obviously done something wrong. A cop car pulled up and it looked like they'd lost him but I could see where he was going. Why sit back? It could have been my house."
Mr Short, 47, who has been a member of the Waitemata Rugby Club for 40 years, chased the burglar on his tractor over two fields.
"I said to him, 'You're not getting any further. This is private property'. It was a little bit of a pride thing."
Mr Short locked the park's gate, trapping the burglar inside.
When police arrested the fugitive they found he had a weapon.
"They told me about the knife afterwards," Mr Short said, "so it was probably a bit of a dumb thing for me to do but I'm glad to help out now and then.
This is not the first time Mr Short has tried to help someone while mowing the lawns.
He once gave CPR to a man having a heart attack, but the man died.
- additional reporting: Elizabeth Binning
