(CBS4) PEABODY Desperate times mean desperate measures.
Two brothers in Peabody say they caught a man who allegedly broke into their mother's home Christmas Eve by pulling down his pants to slow him down before police arrived.
61-year-old George Medeiros told the Salem News he and his 57-year-old brother John stopped at their mother's home on Sanborn Street Sunday afternoon after noticing something was wrong. A vase that usually sits on a window sill was out on the porch.
They went inside, called out for their mother and noticed she was not home.
But the brothers weren't alone. They saw a shadow in their mother's bedroom. When they went inside, they lifted her bed up and saw a man on the ground.
George Medeiros told the paper his brother said to him "'Call 911' and he whacked my brother with a lamp on the side of the head."
The Medeiros brothers began to fight the burglar, who police say was 46-year-old Leroy Wallace of Lynn.
While John Medeiros struggled with Wallace, George Medeiros was able to call police.
But Wallace kept trying to get away, so George Medeiros said he came to a last resort - he "pantsed" him - including his underwear - all down to his ankles.
"I figured it would slow him down if he got up to run," he told the paper.
It worked. Police came and arrested Wallace, who was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, armed burglary and malicious destruction of property more than $250.
The Medeiros brothers were not seriously hurt.
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