A woman grabbed back stolen Apple Macbooks from a thief who broke into her flat after her flatmate forgot to lock the front door.
Natalie Smyth, 22, from Inverness, was at her term time address in Dundee, which she shares with two other women, when the intruder struck.
She heard a noise from downstairs on February 20 and looked down towards the hallway where she spotted the man.
Natalie Smyth, 22, from Inverness, was inside her flat when the man broke into the building
Ms Smyth heard a noise and when she got to the top of the stairs spotted a strange man
Ms Smyth approached the man, pictured, who handed back the goods before running off
The trespasser, dressed in a black and grey jacket, had stuffed two Apple Macbooks and chargers into a blue bag and tried to make a run for it.
Ms Smyth said: ‘I was just out the shower playing music and singing away to myself in my room! But I heard some rustling coming from the hall.
‘I thought it could have been one of my flatmates but as I stepped into the hall, called out the name of my flatmate, receiving no reply, and quickly scanned the rooms as it’s a small flat.
‘I was momentarily confused! Only until I noticed a shadowy figure by the front door fumbling around with some bags.
‘It was dark so was hard to see but it was immediately obvious that this person was not one of my flatmates.’
Ms Smyth immediately whipped out her phone to record as she raced down the stairs towards to thief.
Without hesitation, she approached the man and managed to grab her stolen belongings.
The suspect fled the scene.
She said: ‘I have no idea what gave me the courage!
‘When I’d ever previously imagined myself in this situation, I always assumed I’d either enter fight or flight mode and try to defend myself or lock myself in my room.
‘But suppose you can never anticipate how you will react in a situation like this until you’re in it. I wasn’t scared, surprisingly.
‘I think my immediate response was to try to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.
Ms Smyth, pictured, said she had no idea how she got the courage to confront the man
‘He was so close to the front door and seemed as if he was just about to leave anyway.
‘I almost let him get away with the bag until it dawned on me that it could’ve contained some of our belongings!
‘I had no idea the Macbooks were in there until after he had left but I wasn’t going to allow a stranger to leave with a bag of items belonging to us regardless of what it was.’
Just as he exited through the front door, Ms Smyth told him: ‘What you doing, what you taking with you? That’s my stuff what you doing?
‘What you doing in here? Look, you can’t take that with you. What are you doing in the flat?’
He then proceeded to shut the door and stormed out of the flat, appearing frustrated that he was caught in the act and was able to run off with the stolen items.
She then shouted at him: ‘Don’t come back here again because I’ll have to call the police!’
The man then replies: ‘Don’t call the police, I am the police!’ to which Ms Smyth replied: ‘You’re not the police! You shouldn’t be in the flat.’
The trespasser then exited the building.
Ms Smyth said her flatmate had forgotten to lock the door on her way out to the shops
She said she wasn’t shocked she managed to get her belongings back, saying he didn’t show any sort of violence and was simply an ‘opportunist thief’.
She has since reported the incident to the police but claimed she hasn’t heard back since.
The 22-year-old student added: ‘I’m not shocked he handed it back because I didn’t get the impression, he was violent, as such. Just an opportunist thief. He probably also noticed I was videoing him.
‘I called the police straight away and they said they would be in touch.
‘When we hadn’t heard back in the evening, my flatmate and I called back and asked if the police were still keen to follow it up.
‘They said they would pop around at half nine but ended up too busy to show up that night.
‘I think they said they turned up at 1 am but there was no knock at the door or phone call to make us aware of their presence.
‘Also I didn’t realise the door was unlocked, my flatmate went out for half an hour and forgot to lock it behind her on her way out.
‘And I’m unsure how he got through the secured entrance to the main building either.’