By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
A DRAMATIC citizen’s arrest by a group of community crusaders has led to a police raid in Dandenong where stolen property and a double edged sword were seized.
Residents saw a man acting suspiciously outside an Alysha Avenue property in Lyndhurst just after noon on Saturday 30 May and restrained him until police arrived and took over.
Two of the man’s accomplices fled the scene, one driving off in a white Toyota Hiace van.
The arrest led to a police raid on a Dandenong property that night where detectives found stolen items and a double edged sword.
The Dandenong man, 22, 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 residents had been on the lookout for suspicious behaviour after a number of burglaries in Lyndhurst over the previous fortnight in which a white van was thought to be involved.
They had also 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 him.
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.”
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.
