THAT’S HOW YOU TACKLE CRIME
Purse thief picks wrong guy to outrun ... a rugby league coach
A GOLD Coast rugby league coach sprung into action and crash tackled a man who allegedly snatched a 91-yearold woman’s purse at a Gold Coast shopping centre. The woman told the Bulletin she screamed for help when her purse was stolen from her handbag at Runaway Bay Centre about 5.30pm on Monday.
Coombabah business owner Phil Berry took action alongside an unidentified security guard.
“Anyone would do it, I think the adrenaline just kicks in,” Mr Berry said.
“I coach at Runaway Bay in rugby league and I said to my son who’s 15 ‘Mate, if you tackle the way I teach you to tackle you can bring anyone down’.”
Mr Berry was driving out of the car park when he spotted the alleged thief fleeing the centre.
“She was yelling she had been robbed. I sort of jumped in my car and drove out along Lae Dr. The guy was running around the front of (Runaway Bay Tavern), he threw the wallet on to the ground and I thought ‘No, I have to do something here’,” he said.
Mr Berry accelerated after the man, boxed him against a fence with his car, leapt from the vehicle and took the man down on the road.
“I put my car up on the footpath and pushed him into the fence. As he’s escaped, I’ve jumped out of the car, he’s run around the back and I’ve tackled him on to the ground,” he said.
“I haven’t made a tackle like that in bloody 20 years.”
The guard arrived on scene moments later and pinned the man’s upper body down.
Gold Coast Police officers happened to be driving by and found ”three guys having a wrestle on the road” near Runaway Bay Library.
“I had his legs, security had his top and we were just trying to subdue him,” Mr Berry said.
Soon after, officers had the alleged bag snatcher.
A 22-year-old Runaway Bay man is in custody and was later charged with stealing.
Mr Berry, who was left battered and bruised after the tackle, retrieved the purse from a garden and returned it to the “lovely lady”, who “was in shock”.
The elderly woman, speaking to the Bulletin, praised the “wonderful” actions of Mr Berry and the security guard, but asked not to be named to avoid unnecessary attention.
“This Phil, he was terrific. He was the one that set sail. But so many people helped me down there, a woman with a baby too, everyone was calling for police,” she said.
“And the security man, he also went after him. They were really wonderful.
“I’m going to ring these people and thank them personally.”
The resilient Gold Coast resident said she was doing fine yesterday and “everything’s good”.
A 22-year-old man is due to face Southport Magistrates Court on March 2.