A thief was apprehended by two men in a citizen’s arrest on Monday, following a dramatic chase involving an academic and porters from St Hugh’s College.
Aaron Gardner, 26, of Pegasus Road, had been spotted stealing a laptop from a student’s room in St Hugh’s.
The head of maintenance at Green Templeton College had seen him acting suspiciously. He watched as Gardner, with a woman standing nearby, loitered at the window and then snatched the computer. The Green Templeton staff member reported the crime and gave a description to the St Hugh’s porters and a tutor who was also present.
The don, who has chosen to remain anonymous, stated, “A gentleman in a van saw him and came into the porters’ lodge while I was in there and said: ‘Do you know someone’s nicked a laptop from one of the student’s rooms? He’s outside.”
The St Hugh’s don and porter then spotted the pair. After they were challenged, the male and female began to run away. The academic then gave chase down St Margaret’s Road, Banbury Road and Bardwell. It was only when Gardner jumped into a garden on Northmoor Road that the tutor lost him.
PC Jennie Hanks explained that at this point decorator Tony Thomas, 52, and electrician Marc Partlett, 34, who were renovating a property on Northmoor Rd, caught sight of Gardner garden hopping. They pursued and detained him. The police were called, and at 2.15 he was arrested. Partlett claimed that Gardner “was pleading with us, saying he would go back to jail.”
Gardner, who was already due to appear in court the following day for previous offences including a burglary on Tudor Close in Iffley in October, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and three counts of handling stolen goods and was sentenced to a prison term of 34 months.
In reaction to the theft, some college members expressed concern for their safety. Matilda Curtis, a first year English student at St Hugh’s explained, “It was scary and it did make me feel less safe and much less inclined to keep my door open because usually I feel totally comfortable leaving my door unlocked for long periods of time.
‘I do feel like the college is a safe, enclosed environment but when I think about it, it would be really easy for someone to get in.”
However, the porter who was involved in the arrest commented, “We feel very confident in the security systems, although obviously nothing is 100% secure.”
