What I love most about Christmas is that it brings out the festive spirit in all of us. Well, that’s not technically true — my actual favourite thing is my yearly rewatch of the film Die Hard, but that’s probably why I enjoyed this real-life tale of a good Samaritan saving Christmas in Melbourne this year.
Let me set the nativity scene. According to 7NEWS a bloke named Darcy was minding his own business in the well-to-do suburb of Brighton when he noticed a delivery driver tearing down the street “screaming off his head”.
Some opportunistic fuckwit had seen the unattended delivery van and taken off with all of the Christmas presents inside. It’s giving Sticky Bandits.
Quick-thinking Darcy, channelling the smarts of Die Hard hero John McClane (Bruce Willis), immediately jumped into his own ute with the delivery driver and a Christmas car chase ensued.
“I basically just locked eyes with [the delivery driver] and pointed to get in, and he just jumped straight in, and I just kept driving,” Darcy told 7NEWS.
“There was no hesitation, it was like a movie scene.” 7NEWS has the footage and truly, it’s edge of your seat stuff.
The pair hightailed it after the thief for several kilometres but lost sight of him. Frantically checking side streets for any sign of the crook, they spotted him pulled over ripping through parcels and casually ruining Christmas.
“To see all the presents… being unwrapped and boxes thrown onto the side of the road… it makes me sick to the stomach,” Darcy said.
According to 7NEWS Darcy drove into the side street and barricaded the crim in. Darcy and the delivery driver ran out onto the main road and — in a convenient plot point ripped straight from Hollywood — hailed down a cop car that just so happened to be driving past.
Witnesses say the whole wild scene unfolded very fast. Local woman Nicole Kalaitzis told 7NEWS: “The police cornered off this van and all of a sudden the person was caught, it was just surreal.
“And I just heard the [delivery] guy thanking Darcy, he said ‘mate, you have no idea what you’ve done for me thank you so much.” BLESS.
A 43-year-old man from Preston has since been charged for the offence.
And the best part? The Christmas presents have all been returned to their rightful owners. Santa has been found shaking.
