A 31-year-old Nanaimo woman is getting high fives from RCMP after she chased down and tackled a would-be thief in bare feet.
Jamie Facette was asleep in her mother’s home at 2:15 a.m. Sunday when she heard glass breaking.
She thought it was one of her two indoor-only cats. After more noises prompted her to get out of bed, she saw a man climbing in through a broken window.
“I was mad that he broke my window and my cats could have gotten out,” Facette said Tuesday.
“I wanted to catch him so he could pay for the consequences instead of getting away free.”
She yelled at the intruder and he retreated and ran from the yard.
Facette, in bare feet, chased him down the road.
“She caught up to him three houses away, and grabbed the back of his shirt,” said Const. Gary O’Brien of Nanaimo RCMP.
The man broke free, and Facette returned home to call 911. Minutes later, she saw the same man returning to her house.
“Again, she ran out, clearing her front porch in one leap. She ran toward him and tackled him to the ground with a well-placed foot sweep,” O’Brien said.
It was no big deal, Facette said: “I have a lot of guy friends that I play-fight with all the time. I was trying to get at his legs to knock him down.”
She tackled the man and recalls him protesting, “I’m not fighting you!”
A passing motorcyclist stopped to help and Nanaimo RCMP arrived to take a 22-year-old man into custody. He was released and is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 14.
When police arrived, they looked at Facette and her captive, who stood at least six inches taller than her.
“They asked me if I was part of the force, and I said no, I’m just a normal person,” she said.
Facette said she wasn’t at all fazed during the chase, but she felt a bit shaken afterward. “I freaked out a little bit,” she said.
She reacted strongly because she was afraid her cats would be harmed or escape, said Facette, who works for a fire restoration company.
Her courage and tenacity was praised by Nanaimo RCMP. “Jamie Facette, without any regard for her own safety, took matters into her own hands and managed to catch a crook,” O’Brien said. “We never ask or promote homeowners to go hands-on, but what she did, given the size difference, was simply amazing. The attending officers were also duly impressed.”
