Jamie Fawcett wasn't about to let a man who tried to break into her home off easy.
The 5-foot-2, 31-year-old, who lives on the 900 block of Townsite Road, woke up to the sound of breaking glass at 2:15 a.m. Sunday.
At first she thought it was one of her cats, but when the noise continued she got out of bed and found a man trying to crawl through a window.
Fawcett yelled at the suspect, he fled and the chase was on.
"Well I got a look at him and I figured I could probably take him and he wasn't that hard to take down," Fawcett said.
Fawcett managed to get a grip on his shirt, but the man got free.
When she spotted him near the front of her home again moments later, she slipped her shoes on, went after him again. In spite of their size difference – he was about 10 inches taller – she brought him down with a tackle.
"I knocked him down and then a corrections officer was actually driving by on a motorbike," Fawcett said. "He stopped and held him down while I called 911."
Fawcett said she was motivated by her anger at the attempt to break into her home.
"I wasn't scared," Fawcett said. "I was just mad because I thought my cats would get out and that's really what made me angry. And all the adrenaline. Maybe I shouldn't have done that, but I did. If he was a bigger guy and looked more scary I probably wouldn't have done that."
The suspect, 22, was arrested on suspicion off breaking and entering. He has been released on a promise to appear in Nanaimo provincial court Oct. 14 to face on one count of break and enter.
“Jamie Fawcett, without any regard for her own safety, took matters into her own hands and managed to catch a crook," said Const. Gary O'Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman. "We never ask or promote home owners to go hands-on, but what she did, given the size difference, was simply amazing. The attending officers were also duly impressed.”