Vigilante tradie tells Neil Mitchell he’s been ‘let down’ by police over trailer theft
A vigilante tradie who hunted down a man who stole his trailer and $10,000 worth of tools says he’s appalled with how it’s been handled by police.
Phil Thompson’s trailer was pinched from outside his Chirnside Park house last Sunday, with his livelihood inside.
But in a twist of fate, Phil stumbled across a car towing the trailer while he drove home from football training the following day.
So he followed.
After chasing the driver down a dead-end street, Phil called the police who said they’d be there soon.
But the man dumped the trailer and fled before they got there.
To make matters worse, Phil then opened the trailer to discover his tools were no longer inside.
But having taken down the car’s details, Phil then managed to track down the alleged thief again and followed him back to a nearby address.
He confronted the man at his front door and called police once again.
But he said next to nothing had been done since.
‘I’ve been completely let down,’ Phil told Neil Mitchell on 3AW Mornings.
‘My natural instinct when I caught the bloke was to belt him.
‘It took everything in me to hold back but I thought I’d let the authorities deal with it, I’ll do it the right way and get him caught and prosecuted.’
Police have told Phil the man is known to them, which only furthered his anger.
His tools are insured, but many had been passed down by his grandfather and held sentimental value.
He’s also been unable to work since.
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