A 14-year-old boy has been praised by police for helping catch a serial burglar by calling 999 as he hid under a duvet during a robbery at his home.

Oliver Lomax called his mother, then 999 when he heard the intruder inside the house in Trevor Road, Dorchester.

As a result of his bravery, Weymouth man Jason Baccus, 34, was convicted of 39 burglaries and jailed for two years at Bournemouth Crown Court on 5 March.

Oliver said: "I was under the duvet, if he walked in he would have seen [me]."

"I went back upstairs and heard this loud banging so then I called my mum."

Meanwhile, her son added: "The telephone operator told me they got him but I did not want to move from under the covers because I was so scared."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8557698.stm

No bombers but possibly some weeing I'm guessing. fanny.

And in your world, the brave thing would have been what?

🙂

To get a knife in his ribs.

The only hero is a dead hero.

Three facts got me there from that story
1.

'Mum, he is actually in the house, where are you? Shall I call the police?' [/Quote]– FFS so dumb he had to ask his Mum what to do when being burgled
2.

Ms Lomax arrived moments before three police cars.[/Quote]- though that bit does not actually surprise me.
3. [Quote]Insp Les Fry, from Dorset Police, said: "Due to Ollie's quick-thinking and bravery, a professional burglar – a prolific career criminal – was captured red-handed."

Where quick thinking means call your Mum and ask what to do and bravery means cower under your duvet and not come out even when he has been arrested.

And in your world, the brave thing would have been what?

crawl under the bed and make sure the national press never heard about it 😉

God I'm bored. Can someone please start a decent thread because Ive still got another half an hour to kill before I can sneak off. 🙁

However it's been reported, that's still a 14 year old kid sh*tting himself. The fact that he did something, and didn't just lay there quivering is good.

Don't assume you would have done owt different!

Linked on that story is a story about how a 72 year old woman chased off 3 blokes pretending to be from the water board (which was proper brave). And then linked from that story is this one. Which is sensational, especially the last sentance

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8071865.stm

We had a burglar early one morning when I was about 12/13, just me and my grandma in the house, she was asleep, I heard noises downstairs so got my cricket bat and tip-toed down the stairs – I burst into the lounge ready to attack the burglar….turns out it was my grandad arriving homes from working nights

This lad sounds proper soft!

'fanny' is a bit harsh. A 14 year old boy? Against a potentially dangerous burglar?

The sensible thing to do would have been to evacuate the house, if he was able to, though it's unlikely the burglar would have hung around long enough to be apprehended.
Bravery does imply, in my books at least, a bit of conscious decision making and I'm not sure that applies in this case, but you're too harsh by far Stoner.

If it had been your son, what would your comments on his behaviour have been? Might give us a better perspective on your views.

Are you trolling? ahh, you are.

Blimey weren't we all hard at 14 🙄

Evacuate the house? At fourteen, I'd probably have evacuated my arse! The OP probably still would. 😛

Are you trolling? ahh, you are.

indeed.

In fact Im so bored Ive even calculated the marginal increase in BTUs of a range of radiators per additional mm of size. Ive also calculated the marginal difference in cost of radiator per btu of output for each additional mm in size. Ive also calculated how much earth I have to excavate to fit a rainwater harvest tank in the ground. This is my world when Im stuck up here in london. I am sooooo bored. Sometimes I wish I had the imagination/drugs (*delete as applicable) of muddyfoxcourier. I could just tune out and talk gibberish for a while.

well we had no mobiles to cower under our duvets with whilst ringing our Mums for help…not sure what the best thing to do is ring the police without asking your Mum first and not hiding under a duvet – I mean at least find a good hiding place FFS 8O. Like the burglar would walk into the room see the quivering lump under the duvet and think nothing of it. Their actions were neither brave nor quick thinking.

I do tend to agree with you

Like the burglar would walk into the room see the quivering lump under the duvet and think nothing of it.

They'd walk in, see the quivering lump, tell them to stay where they are or get stabbed, then carry on nicking stuff.

Brave is doing something without thinking and not worrying about what could happen…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8556788.stm