Hawthorn dad Grant Brown unloads on Premier Jacinta Allan and Victoria’s bail laws after home invasion terror

The hero dad who chased down two boys in his underwear after they allegedly broke into his Melbourne home has unloaded on Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and the state’s handling of youth crime, revealing one of the boys who allegedly invaded his home was on bail at the time. “It’s frightening,” he told the Today Show on Tuesday morning. “One of them (alleged offenders) was on bail. The other one was released yesterday, two hours after he was arrested … it’s a real worry seeing the Premier on TV yesterday saying how tough we are on youth crime and on bail laws. It’s a load of rubbish. The actions don’t match the words at all.” Mr Brown, since dubbed “Captain Underwear” after CCTV footage emerged of him chasing down the two boys, was in his Kinkora Rd home in Hawthorn about 3.25am on Monday when he heard people inside his house. “Saw a torchlight so yeah, just ripped out of bed,” he said. “Got them out of the house pretty quick. Chased after them. They bolted up the street, so I legged it up after them and caught up with one of them.” In a remarkable moment, Mr Brown said he then made the boy call the police on himself. “He was trying to leg it over someone’s fence, so I pulled him back down,” he said. “He was going a bit wild, then he managed to calm down a bit. He was saying, ‘Don’t hurt me, you can call the cops, just don’t hurt me’.” Mr Brown said concern for his family had sparked his courageous response to the incident. “That’s why you react, you want to protect your family,” he said. “Just want to get them out of the house as quick as I could.” Police took a 15-year-old into custody and then later arrested a 14-year-old boy. Police say they are investigating whether the boys were also involved in an aggravated burglary in Elphin Grove just prior to the incident. Speaking on Monday, Ms Allan said the state’s bail laws had been “toughened” in response to shocking acts of violence perpetrated by teens across the state. “The bail laws have been toughened here in Victoria, that if you are caught carrying a machete, once our ban on machete, once the amnesty period concludes, you will face fines of tens of thousands of dollars and up to five years imprisonment,” she said. “And it is working … it is getting these dangerous weapons off the street.” In March, the government passed laws to prioritise community safety in bail decisions and remove the principle of remand as a “last resort”.