A student who came face-to-face with a burglar in her flat showed no hesitation as she confronted him and grabbed back the laptops he was attempting to steal.
Natalie Smyth, a university student in Dundee, was upstairs in the flat she shares with two other women when she heard a noise coming from the hallway.
Assuming it was one of her flatmates, she shouted out and got no reply, so peered down the stairs when she noticed a strange figure in the hallway.
A man, dressed in dark clothing, had put two Apple Macbooks and chargers into a bag and tried to make a swift exit when he had heard Natalie's voice.
The 22-year-old from Inverness said: "I was just out the shower, playing music and singing away to myself in my room but I heard some rustling coming from the hall.
"I thought it could have been one of my flatmates but as I stepped into the hall, called out the name of my flatmate, receiving no reply, and quickly scanned the rooms as it’s a small flat.
"I was momentarily confused - only until I noticed a shadowy figure by the front door fumbling around with some bags.
"It was dark so was hard to see but it was immediately obvious that this person was not one of my flatmates."
Without a second thought, Natalie began recoding on her phone and raced down the stairs to confront the man, grabbing back her belongings as the man put up very little resistance while heading for the exit.
Natalie follows him out of the flat, telling the thief not to return.
He had let himself in after one of her flatmates had forgotten to lock the door behind them, and others hailed her nerves of steel when she posted the footage on Twitter to warn others.
She wrote: "Pls remember to lock your doors in Dundee guys. I’ve just come out of my room to find this idiot trying to leave with a bag of our MacBooks x what a week."
The video has racked up more than 66,000 views, with one replying: "Have you thought about joining the police?! You couldn't have been more unbothered about confronting him."
Another said: "Bloody hell! I’m surprised you were so calm!"
Natalie said: "I have no idea what gave me the courage!
"When I’d ever previously imagined myself in this situation, I always assumed I’d either enter fight or flight mode and try to defend myself or lock myself in my room.
"But I suppose you can never anticipate how you will react in a situation like this until you’re in it. I wasn't scared, surprisingly.
"I think my immediate response was to try to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.
"He was so close to the front door and seemed as if he was just about to leave anyway.
"I almost let him get away with the bag until it dawned on me that it could’ve contained some of our belongings.
"I had no idea the Macbooks were in there until after he had left but I wasn’t going to allow a stranger to leave with a bag of items belonging to us regardless of what it was."
Natalie believes the man was simply an 'opportunist thief' and has since reported the incident to the police, but claims she hasn't heard back.
She added: "I called the police straight away and they said they would be in touch.
"When we hadn’t heard back in the evening, my flatmate and I called back and asked if the police were still keen to follow it up.
"They said they would pop around at half nine but ended up too busy to show up that night.
"I think they said they turned up at 1am but there was no knock at the door or phone call to make us aware of their presence."
