Steve Middleton was butt naked when he woke up at 4:30am to strangers rummaging through his vehicle on Boxing Day.
The Gold Coast, Australia resident quickly grabbed some underwear to save his dignity and flew out the door to try and protect his property - leaving the group of five youngsters he confronted probably just as shocked as he was.
"I was naked, I woke up, found a pair of underpants, ran outside, scared one of them, managed to tackle him," the construction worker, 50, told Nine News. Not really the way you want to be easing your Christmas Day hangover, is it?
"I didn't realise there was other kids in the other car up the street, I didn't think anything of it," he added.
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The whole confrontation - which was caught on a security camera - quickly took a turn after Steve realised some of the alleged thieves appeared to be armed.
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Footage appears to show one member of the group pulling out a knife and another a baseball bat on an underwear-clad Steve.
“Once the bat came out I tried to use the young fella I was holding onto as my little shield,” Steve recalled.
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“Then I saw another head pop up on the other side, going through the other car. I was like 'Oh s**t, we're being robbed',” he told the Courier Mail.
“I thought 'bugger it, I'll grab this bloke' and gave him a bit of a tackle.”
Steve somehow managed to wrestle the group before they allegedly fled the scene in two vehicles - a BMW X4 and a Mazda CX-3.
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“I had another two fellas come at me with weapons and that was it,” he explained. “The young fella got away from me.
“All I wanted to do was hold onto one so we could get the police here and they could sort it from there.”
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Unbelievably, Steve managed to come away unscathed from the early morning chaos bar one minor cut on his hand. “Old mate gave me a little nick with his knife,” he said.
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Local residents branded the incident as sounding ‘like an all-in-brawl', while likening Steve to Superman for his fearlessness and, well, unusual fighting attire.
Queensland Police are said to be aware of the incident and the investigation is ongoing.
Topics: Australia, World News
Chloe Rowland