Melbourne man fights off armed thieves with bass guitar

Armed home intruders were no match for Melbourne man Mike Conomy, who used his bass guitar to fight them off when they demanded his car keys.

2 min read

May 20, 2020 - 2:24PM

Armed thieves were no match for Melbourne man Mike Conomy, who fought them off using a bass guitar when they broke down his front door and demanded the keys to his Mercedes.

Mike, who lives in Truganina in Melbourne’s west with his partner Anna, was dubbed a “legend” by Today hosts Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon when he recounted the story on air this morning.

“In the nutshell version, we had the bangs at the door, we then realised it was someone trying to break down the door with a mallet, they got in, held them off, I chased them, then they held a knife to my partner,” Mike explained.

“They’ve gone, ‘Where’s the keys?’ I was like, ‘I will hand over my car keys’. I looked in my study, we only moved in a week ago, couldn’t find the keys because I’m an idiot!

“Gone, ‘I’ve got to do something, need something that’s better than a knife, I don’t have a baseball bat but I have guitars’. So I grabbed the meanest one and it happened to be the cheapest one.”

This legend chased knife-wielding thieves out of his home armed only with a bass guitar! ðŸŽ¸ #9Today pic.twitter.com/U9uOURVgIM
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) May 19, 2020

Anna, asked what it was like to have a knife held to her throat, said the experience was “terrifying”.

“When you are in that kind of situation, you have a couple of responses. People talk about fight or flight. There’s also freeze. I just absolutely froze,” the 28-year-old said.

“Then before I knew it, Mike had something along the lines of, ‘Let’s go, mother f***ers’ and ran out the door with the bass.”

In an interview with 7 NEWS, Mike said he decided to use the instrument “like a battle axe and chase them down the street”.

In his chase, he managed to smash the rear passenger window of the thieves’ getaway car.

“I’m very proud of him,” Anna said, adding it was “the stupidest thing” her partner had ever done.

“To be fair, seeing anyone run out of the corner of a house with a bass above their heads, screaming and yelling is not the most standard,” Mike said.

The couple, who enjoy online gaming, said it’s very different when you’re faced with a scenario straight from a video game in real life.

“Obviously online gaming means that you don’t have any real danger, you’re usually the one doing the danger or performing said danger, not the one being the victim of said danger,” Anna said.

Victoria Police are appealing for information or for anyone who witnessed the car in the vicinity to come forward.

The offenders are perceived to be Middle Eastern in appearance and were wearing hooded jumpers and had their faces covered.