A MAN who helped police catch a burglar by chasing him down the street in his flip flops says it was “no big deal”.

Derek Wright, 46, was fast asleep at home in Lorne Gardens, Wanstead, last Thursday (June 22) when his wife Svetlana woke him up around 1am.

She urgently whispered for him to come to the window where he saw a man trying to break into their neighbours’ cars parked in the street outside.

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

With their two children still asleep next to them, Mr Wright rang the police, while his wife filmed what was going on from the bedroom window.

She said: “You’d have thought he’d want to run away quickly, but after he managed to steal an iPod from one of the cars he just sat on the pavement playing with it.

“I thought he might’ve been on drugs, it was very strange.”

When the thief set off one of the car’s alarms and ran away, Mr Wright put on whatever clothes he could find and chased after him.

He said: “I got dressed as quickly as I could, put on some flip flops and ran outside.

“There was a real sense of urgency. I wanted to know where he’d gone so the police could catch him.

“I wasn’t scared, I actually quite enjoyed the drama.”

With multiple marathons and triathlons under his belt, Mr Wright said chasing the burglar down Lorne Gardens, Elmcroft Avenue, Limes Avenue and Rutland Road “wasn’t a problem”.

Meanwhile Mrs Wright knocked on her neighbours’ doors to tell them what had happened as she waited anxiously for her husband’s return.

The 46-year-old said: “I was running around in my pyjamas in the dark, I must’ve looked really weird.

“Derek was so excited by it all but I was really worried.

“He had absolutely nothing to defend himself with – for all we knew the guy might’ve had a weapon or someone else with him hiding around the corner.”

But at just 50 metres away from in Rutland Road the thief spotted Mr Wright and “zoomed off” on his scooter.

He ran back home to find two police cars parked outside and told one of the officers where he had gone.

A few minutes later the couple got a phone call from the police to say the man had been arrested in Stanstead Road.

Mr Wright said: “I wasn’t doing anything heroic, it wasn’t a big deal or anything.

“I just wanted to help the police catch him.”

Mrs Wright added: “I’m glad they caught him, because if he’d been on the loose he could’ve come back to find us to get revenge.”

When she posted about the ordeal on a community Facebook group, over 60 people commented to praise the Wrights for their “heroic” actions.

A neighbour said “having such kind neighbours like you is invaluable”, while another branded it “bloody marvellous”.

Mrs Wright said: “We didn’t expect any praise, but we have to look out for each other.

“This has happened a lot in the area recently, E11 is becoming a very dangerous postcode.”

Roy Joseph Seymour, 20, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to theft and vehicle interference at Barkingside Magistrates Court on June 23. His crimes also broke a year-long conditional discharge he had for two counts of theft, breaching a restraining order, and battery.

He is due to be sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court tomorrow (June 30).