A Melbourne man who was forced to perform a citizen's arrest on a teenager accused of trying to break into his house has expressed shock that one of the alleged offenders was released from custody just hours after the incident.
Grant Brown says he was awoken at 3am on Monday morning to two teenagers inside his Hawthorn home in an attempted robbery.
Brown, dressed in just his underwear, said he chased the pair out of the home and was able to confront and tackle one of them, a 15-year-old boy, restraining him until police arrived.
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The 15-year-old was arrested and a short time later police arrested a second 14-year-old, who was already on bail for a separate offence.
Both boys were later charged with two counts of aggravated burglary.
Despite opposition from police, the 15-year-old was granted bail while the 14-year-old was not.
Speaking to Today, Brown expressed his frustration at the leniency of the bail laws, especially due to the violent nature of the incident and threats one of the teenagers was making.
"The premier on TV yesterday saying how tough we are on youth crime and on bail laws, it's a load of rubbish," he said.
"It's frightening. And yeah, one them was on bail and the other one was released yesterday two hours after he was arrested.
"He's carrying a knife, entering our house and then coming back when he was arrested, saying he was going to come [back], then he gets let out in two hours. It's a real worry here."
"The actions don't match the words at all."
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Brown said his instincts kicked in during the incident, and said jumping to stop the robbery in just his underwear was a desire to protect his family.
"That's why you react, you want to protect your family. So I just wanted to get him out of the house as quick as I could," he said.
Brown recalls having to compel the teenager to call police, saying the teenager was in fear for himself.
"[He was] going a bit wild," Brown said. "I managed to calm him down a bit, and then he was saying, 'don't hurt me, you can call the cops, just don't hurt me.'
"I'm like, 'okay, well, why don't you call the cops?'
"I did the talking he just did the dialling."
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