The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)

Thief met his match when he tried to rob bodybuilde­r’s house

- JAKE KEITH

A hapless thief came off second best when he was tackled during a robbery by the powerlifti­ng bodybuilde­r who lived in the house.

Lanky drug addict Alan Brown proved to be no match for muscleboun­d have-a-go householde­r Damien Harrier when he was caught red-handed.

Brave Mr Harrier chased down the knife-wielding thief and disarmed him before punching him so hard that he may need to have plastic surgery.

Mr Harrier said: “I was making sure the house was shut down before going to bed when I heard a bang in my garage. I went to check it out and found this guy standing inside with a knife.

“He was really aggressive and told me he had hepatitis C and it was his blood on the blade. I asked him to calm down but he charged at me.

“Fight or flight kicked in and I grabbed him. He ran away but my neighbour is elderly and he was trying to jump over his fence.

“I punched him a couple of times. I managed to disarm him and call the police. He eventually calmed down and said he wanted to make sure he didn’t get any blood on me.”

Terrified Brown was then forced to turn out his pockets and hand back the items he had stolen during raids at Mr Harrier’s home and at his next door neighbour’s.

Brown was marched through ex-rugby player Mr Harrier’s home by the scruff of the neck before being forced to pose for a mugshot which was then posted on Facebook.

He was identified by several people on social media who knew him as “Scotland’s lowest crook” due to his previous crime sprees.

By the time he was arrested, he was sporting a black eye which was a result of him meeting Mr Harrier’s summary justice.

Brown, 38, from Perth, was jailed for 18 months after he admitted having a knife at an address in Balhousie Street, Perth, on May 2 this year.

He also admitted breaking into two properties on the street and stealing items including war memorabili­a, medals, jewellery, a razor and golf shoe bag.

A Montrose-born nurse was handed the keys to Hollywood star Alan Cumming’s social media channels as part of a campaign to give a voice to those on the frontline.

X-Men star Cumming, 55, who was born in Aberfeldy and spent part of his childhood living near Carnoustie, gave David Anderson control of his Twitter and Instagram account for the Pass The Mic effort.

The promotion is being led by anti-poverty group the ONE Campaign, giving frontline health workers and economic experts a platform to discuss the global response to the coronaviru­s pandemic.

Mr Anderson, an emergency medical nurse, works with humanitari­an charity UK-Med and returned to Britain two months ago following a stint in South Africa helping shape the country’s response to Covid-19.

He is currently working as director of quality and infection prevention and control at the NHS Nightingal­e Hospital in Manchester.

He told Cumming’s almost 300,000 followers that a global co-ordinated approach is “the only way” to stop the

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