Northmead resident Thys Neethling was at his Third Avenue home on Thursday evening, last week, when he noticed an intruder at around 7.45pm.
The incident was captured on CCTV and shows how a man walked onto his stoep and piled three chairs on top of each other.
Before the intruder could make off with the chairs, he was spotted by Neethling who shouted obscene words at him.
“He (the criminal) was literally 1.5m from the window,” said Neethling.
“If he was a bit closer I would have grabbed him.”
The home owner said the would-be thief ran away before he could get to him.
Neethling said he chose not to open a case at the Benoni Police Station as nothing was stolen.
He said he feels he does not want to waste police resources to investigate a matter which did not result in injury or the theft of his chairs.
He said he would have chased him down if he did steal something.
“I probably would have killed him if I got hold of him,” he said.
Neethling told the City Times he won’t live in a prison and that closing gates and palisades stops nobody.
