An off-duty Wiltshire Police officer managed to catch a burglar in Tisbury after a member of the public reported to him that a suspicious man had been seen entering the garden of the local vicarage.

On the evening of Sunday 17 September PC Steve Porter was contacted by the member of the public while off shift.

Steve went to investigate and checked the grounds of the vicarage – he could not find anyone but phoned 999 to report a possible burglary. While waiting for on-duty officers to get there Steve saw the suspect leave the premises and managed to stop and detain him until uniformed officers arrived.

The suspect was searched and found to be in possession of religious clothing, over £300 pounds of church donations and two bottles of alcohol stolen from the vicarage.

A 38-year-old local man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and is currently in custody.

Inspector Andy Fee said: ‘This is great work carried out by Steve who just happened to be off-shift at the time – a good example which shows our local communities that our dedicated police officers are never really off duty.
‘Had it not been for Steve’s actions it is highly likely that our suspect would’ve gone before on-duty officers arrived.’