Daring action

Master butcher caught burglar with Florianis

Christian Derntl's house is currently being renovated. The burglar probably assumed that the building was temporarily unoccupied.(Bild: Einöder Horst)

A 29-year-old man was surprised by a crook in his home in Leonding (Upper Austria) late one evening. However, he was not deterred by the intruder's threats, pursued him and finally managed to wrestle him down together with fellow firefighters. Police officers then just had to "collect" the crook.

"I don't know if I would do exactly the same thing a second time, it was instinctive," says master butcher Christian Derntl from Leonding the day after his daring action. The 29-year-old involuntarily became a burglar scare on Wednesday evening.

The story: The entrepreneur had made himself comfortable on the terrace on the second floor of his home - which is currently being renovated - at around 9.30 pm. "I was enjoying a drink there when suddenly a strange man stood in front of me and said: Leave me alone or I'll hurt you!" says Derntl, who was not deterred by this.

The burglar realized that his threat was not having the desired effect and fled down the stairwell to the street. Derntl followed at a run and alerted the police on the way: "He then ran about 500 meters to the fire station, where my comrades were holding a drill."

In a situation like that, you don't think about it, you act. I didn't see a weapon on the man.

Fleischermeister Christian Derntl (29) aus Leonding händigte der Polizei den Ganoven aus.

Pinned to the ground
That was the crook's bad luck, because six Florianis helped Derntl, who is himself a fire brigade platoon commander, to catch the burglar and pin him to the ground. "Leave me alone," shouted the crook with a southern accent. The police arrived minutes later and congratulated Derntl on his catch. "The man's car, which contained stolen goods from my house, was also recovered."

Police officers were also able to recover stolen goods from Christian Derntl's home in the suspect's black Audi.(Bild: Einöder Horst)

The excitement was great, but the master butcher was able to sleep well on Thursday night: "As a firefighter, you're used to a lot, you have to be able to switch off."