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Remember when: Two Gold Coast and Tweed residents helped apprehend two would-be thieves

IT was a day of high crime for the Gold Coast and Tweed regions as two would-be thieves met their match in locals.

Gold Coast History: Gold Coast Bulletin 1998, October 28. Front page.
Gold Coast History: Gold Coast Bulletin 1998, October 28. Front page.

Gold Coast Bulletin, Wednesday October 28, 1998

IT was a day of high crime for the Gold Coast and Tweed regions.

Gold Coast History: Gold Coast Bulletin 1998, October 28. Front page.
Gold Coast History: Gold Coast Bulletin 1998, October 28. Front page.

In Tweed Heads a Long Bay jail escapee who wriggled through a doggie door to stage a break-in chose the wrong homeowner as his victim.

The man of the house confronted the intruder, chased him down the street and bailed him up against the back of his house.

The homeowner, who did not want to be identified, said he reacted instinctively after he arrived home from work that Monday night and heard the man walking around on the timber floor in the upstairs section of his house.

The man was later arrested by police and was found to be Nicholas Scott Seymour who had escaped from Sydney’s Long Bay prison on August 12, 1998.

Following his arrest the then-33-year-old pleaded guilty to a charge of entering a dwelling to commit a felony but did not enter a plea to a further charge of escaping lawful custody.

He was remanded in custody to appear in Sydney’s Central Local Court in November 1998.

Meanwhile, big men turned away or stood idly by as a woman shopper chasing a Burleigh Town thief yelled in vain for assistance.

Kimberley Le Bagge, then 32, said the men who failed to help her should have been ashamed.

Ms Le Bagge, who described herself as a small-framed woman, chased the thief after a camera shop was raided.

He was later arrested by police.

Original URL: https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/lifestyle/gold-coast-130/remember-when-two-gold-coast-and-tweed-residents-helped-apprehend-two-wouldbe-thieves/news-story/b9635b642a8f34e19d1be5baa45410a2