A Montreal university student is being called a hero after stopping a masked intruder who broke into his family home while his parents and sister slept upstairs.
Nineteen-year-old Charles Seitz had just returned from a night out in August when he walked into his kitchen and came face to face with a burglar.
“I saw a guy jump out from one of our rooms,” Seitz recalled. “He had a bright flashlight, and it’s pitch black in the house so that kind of blinded me…. I froze for a second or two.”
The back door had been left unlocked so Seitz could get in.
Within seconds, the masked man charged at him.
“I punched him in the face and tackled him, took him down, got him in a chokehold,” Seitz said.
As a former high school wrestling champion with training in jiu-jitsu, Seitz had the skills — and the calm — to handle the situation.
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“Legs around him and I have the chokehold and I’m behind him like that. I felt him grabbing on my arms, but it only takes a couple seconds.”
His father, Chris Seitz, woke up to the sounds of his son calling for help and rushed downstairs, only to find that Charles already had the man restrained.
“Charles was very calm. I was so impressed with how calm he was through it,” his father said. “I remember him saying, ‘Sir, I have control of your airway.’”
The family held the man down until police arrived about 15 minutes later. Charles’ sister called 911 while the two men kept the suspect pinned to the ground.
“I was just telling him, like, ‘You’re the coolest person on the planet,’” Jacqueline Seitz said. “Definitely felt safer that night having him in the house.”
Gheorghita Onisei, a 58-year-old man suspected in at least 20 other break-ins in the area, has been arrested in the incident, according to police.
According to British media reports, a man with the same name had previously served six years in a German prison for 13 burglaries.
“I think residents were very relieved,” said Christina Smith, mayor of Westmount. “It had caused a lot of stress for the people that had these incidents.”
Seitz was later awarded a certificate of recognition from the Montreal police for his quick action.
Just weeks after the incident, he left home to begin his first year at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., where, he admits, the story made for a pretty great icebreaker.
“He said, ‘That was quite the father-son moment,’” Chris Seitz told Global News.
The family has since installed security cameras and is extra cautious about locking their doors.
As for the suspect, he remains in custody and is set to appear in court in December.
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