THE other day I was driving out of the Woolshops car park in Halifax when I saw a lady have her handbag stolen. She fell to the ground and the thief ran off.

I was in two minds: do I run him over or not? I thought these days I would be the one locked up if I did, so I didn't, but I did decide to follow him as he ran off.

As I reached the junction in the road I saw him climb over a fence into Square Church I decided to park up and I ran to the back of Square Chapel to cut him off should he reappear on the other side.

I was joined by three young men in their early 20s or late teens and they, too, were searching for this man.

The thief came to the fence as we hoped but he was trapped. He set off in the opposite direction to escape but the young men gave chase around the perimiter to cut off his escape route.

At this point the police came and entered the grounds and after a short search arrested the man.

We cheered as we saw him cuffed but my main reason for sending you this message is to say that so often we hear bad news about the young people of towns and cities and I thought it would be nice to give praise to the young men whose first thought was that "that could have been my mother" and had it not been for them the thief could have got away.

It turns out he is possibly from abroad; if so I say let his serve his sentence and then send him home.

Michael Porter