Belfast has a new crime-fighter.
Irish boxer Sean McComb was a real-life hero yesterday as he took down a pair of snatch-and-grab street thieves in Belfast.
McComb, twice the national lightweight champion, won a bronze medal at this summer’s European Games in Azerbaijan, but the Holy Trinity fighter’s attention was firmly on defeating the city’s criminal elements over the weekend.
The 23-year-old, who works for a sightseeing company, first chased down a man who had snatched a woman’s purse at a bus stop.
“I was just standing outside city hall working for City Sightseeing Belfast and some girl was standing waiting on her bus just across the street,’ McComb told BelfastLive.
“Then I just saw everybody pointing up the street shouting: ‘That guy stole her purse, that guy stole her purse!’
“One of my work colleagues, Ryan, said ‘Do you wanna go get him?’ So I just started jogging up and went up after him. I ended up catching him at I think it was the entry at Castle Lane.
“I just saw him hiding behind a door. He dropped the purse: My colleague lifted it and I kept going because I knew he’d have taken the money out of it.
“The woman was delighted to get the purse back: Her bank card and pin number were in the purse so he could have went to the bank machine and cleared her out.”
But Belfast’s newest crime fighter wasn’t done yet.
Less than half an hour later, McComb was called into action again after a man had his mobile phone stolen.
“I was walking up the town with some customers, and we were coming back down I saw a man running in the front of city hall” McComb said.
“I saw all my colleagues pointing and pointing – I thought to myself ‘No way, this could not be happening again’.
“A colleague said: ‘Run up that way’. And I said, ‘No there’s no point it’ll be gone’.
“Then we saw one of his mates run down Chichester Street. And I jogged slowly behind them – and then I saw the guy who took it. I just started sprinting up after him, grabbed him by the hood and I got the phone back.”
Of course, like all the best superheroes, McComb cut an unassuming figure after his brave actions.
“I don’t like seeing things like that happen. It’s shocking, but it happens in every city in the world. I’m just happy to help out.”
