Fairy dusts robber

Here’s one costumed hero unlikely to get his own action figure. Unless it’s in the Barbie section.

Neither Marvel nor DC comics have prepared New Zealand for the sight of a fleeing robber flattened by a pink fairy. But take a bow Liam Fontaine, who stepped up while wearing a pink crop top, fishnets, tutu and fairy wings. As you do.

Or at least you might do if you, too, were taking part in the seventh annual pink fun walk organised by the Hawke’s Bay Breast Cancer Trust.

There’s perhaps a wee message of empowerment there, albeit one that doesn’t stand too much scrutiny from little girls who might be better to stick to the adventures of Samira the Superhero Fairy in the Rainbow Magic series.

The rest of us can enjoy the mental imagery of the incident, in which Fontaine and another man tackled the dairy robber until an off-duty cop arrived.

In such cases the police are always careful to encourage people to think about the risks involved.

But if fairytales have taught us anything it’s that fairies are wilful critters of instinct.

Even the police could scarcely fail to share the community sense of amused admiration and rightly commended the three captors, while playfully considering, but rejecting, a change of uniform. For which, we might add, they themselves receive the grateful thanks of the nation.

And with all due respects to the unquestionably brave Fontaine, he wouldn’t be the most buff constumed hero out there.

Probably wouldn’t be the most buff fairy. But any way you look at it, this is a story that proves it’s not what’s on the outside that matters.

It’s by no means unprecedented that arrests have been made by people who mightn’t have dressed for the occasion.

Long to be remembered was the case of Balclutha policeman Tom Taylor, who was woken from a hot night’s repose to the sound of his wife Christine collaring a man who had been quietly nicking a car.

Collared by Christine – again, admirable but not the headline-winner – the thief became startled afresh and bolted when Taylor arrived in the simultaneous states of nudity and high dudgeon.

Sufficiently motivated, and then some, he managed to flee his padding pursuer into the night, but was later identified and charged.

As was suggested at the time, this might have been one of those few cases where the victim impact report was less traumatised than the offender’s account.

Taylor was feted as a credit to the uniform he didn’t happen to be wearing.

And Fontaine? Undoubtedly a good fairy.