CARPORT/GARAGE BURGLARY,KEYSBOROUGH vic bicycle-riding thief--bike oriented items targeted

[RetroPilot]

At 5am Saturday July 3
I interrupted a burglary/theft in my carport Serpentine Rd general neighborhood of Keysborough Vic .
An exchange with the actual thief occurred, and a shopping bag of items he had secreted under a neighbors tree intending to steal was actually recovered after this heated exchange ...but it took till daybreak when I could look around properly to see exactly where he had been and what he had gone with and that a number of items were missing. He had spent a busy little 30-60 mins in there I feel, and I'd only busted him when he was coming down the home straight.
Main items still missing include a small/medium dark grey backpack that I used for gym. It contained my GOODLIFE gym membership card-my original one from when I joined- a MYKI...and other gym related items.He had actually tossed the bulky items , an army water bottle and a largish pair of white boxing gloves out of the backpack and against one side of my carport, presumably so backpack could be filled to carry other items he took.
The money value of it is not high, but I've been using that little backpack and the bits and pieces in it for gym visits for 20+ years. I grab that backpack and off I go, because it has everything I need in it. All of that routine and org tossed up in the air because of this.
The thief arrived by bicycle , Although he pointed it out to me saying he wanted to sell it I did not look at it properly, as I was not buying this 'I sell you my bike' routine anyway.My impression was a 26" BSO , possibly black or black orange, possible a dual-suspension job, but all that was a blur. Might just be any 26" BSO.
And, his main focus for whole visit, apart from the backpack, was
A. Bicycle parts my bikes had chain/cable locks on them, so he actually set about stripping parts off of my bikes , a seat/seat pole, LED lights that kind of thing.Actually also took 2 combo chain locks, not the little dog-chain type one or two grades up from that, one of the chain locks has blue stripes around it's plastic sleeve...I know the combos anyway if I see locks like those around...and several load-binder ocko-strap things including two of the thickish yellow ones. Money value all low, but, all knick-knacks I've owned for many years, you know? and I use those binders and chain-locks very often...
and
B. Tools...especially small tools, small sized spanners, folding allen key sets, a set of drill bits, very small ring spanners 8-9-10mm, this kind of stuff. A 12" shifter and 3 good quality large screwdrivers were ignored-as was an actual GMC drill. But he had planned to take my set of Sutton drill bits. But many small/medium tools were attempted taken. Perhaps he mostly wanted tools he can use for removing/installing bike parts. Well, yes, that would mesh. .
C. An amount of cash stored on two of my bikes was also taken, around $30 in small bills and gold change. Kept there for stops at shops on bike trips. He had thoroughly searched through the basket clutter on 3 separate bikes.

Apart from grey backpack and contents, a handful , maybe 4-6, of automotive Ring-spanners around the 13-14-15mm/1/2"-9/16" inch were also taken.(Those I'd taken to a friends place one day to change a pair of Victa mower blades, an then tossed the shopping bag in back of my ute instead of returning them to my toolboxes..so going through shopping bags lying around, he found them. . As I mentioned, most of the rest of a large selection of small tools he'd had stashed intending to take on departure...I recovered after the confrontation with him. But these last ones were not recovered .

As mentioned, the thief arrived by bicycle. Actually tried to tell me reason was there was that he wanted to sell me his bike. Swore to God in fact, that he was not there for any sinister reasons. I'd been watching him through my lounge window for a minute or two before bursting through my front door and confronting him. He was carefully and thoroughly searching the bikes and combing clutter in back of my pickup using his cellphone torch. The battery was flat in his phone he'd had the light on so long. So...he was not there to sell me anything. His thoroughness was amazing. He also entered cab of my unreg derro Toyota pickup and tossed everything upside down going through it.

anyway, I'd appreciate any info on this guy's identity to have a second conversation with him and maybe police.
He is South-East Asian ethnicity, I do not want to mention any countries by name in case I offend someone, but thinking re three nations call them nations -Ca-..V- ..or possibly L . That area. Confident that those three cover his ethnic background, and the favorite if I was having a bet is.. 'Ca"
165-170cms tall, somewhat nuggety little build , age 20s-30s-40s. Speaks reasonable English but some accent still.
He claimed to me.. that he lived in Springvale South..this might be true, he would need to be fairly local, I doubt this was an epic long-haul raid. ...he further claimed that there had been two of them involved , not one, but I only saw/intercepted one guy. So, how many ants had been at the picnic out there before I eventually rolled out and broke it up, I don't know.

Any clues to his identity/whereabouts or of my stolen items I'd be very grateful. I am still pining for those things.
T/y for reading my exciting little tale of battles with 5am liars/thieves and disruptive bloody pests.

[rkelsen]

You caught him in the act, but didn't call the police?

[Retrobyte]

Did he actually break into anything, or just grab things that were sitting around? From your description is sounds like it was an open carport/garage, with all these items there for the taking.

[RetroPilot]

well, yes, there was no breaking into or opening doors as such..walk up into carport..

sitting around, well, a lot of the stuff he found and removed kind of required a little mining operation to uncover, which was conducted with fine tooth comb thoroughness as I've indicated...the cab of the pickup was also opened and entered and ransacked/searched...everything in there tossed completely upside down back to front.. whole thing more than meets the criteria of a burglary, in my book...if he wanted a saddle and a seat pole for a bike, if he'd asked, he'd have stood good chance of me giving him one spare, and one the right requisite diameter, instead of taking pot-luck on the one he removed from a working bike, potentially rendering that bike then useless for time being with no correct sized seat-pole available ..

[RetroPilot]

You caught him in the act, but didn't call the police?

no, I tossed up whether to call 000 before even going out to confront him..in the event I decided not, mostly because in the silent atmosphere of 5am I thought he --might-- pick up my loud whisper into telephone in lounghe room, twig that the jig was up, and book out of sight while I was still pissing about with 000 operator on phone..

with benefit of hindsight,gimme a do-over, yeah, ok, I'd have called police first...best reason being, at least they would have ascertained the little prick's name/address, and maybe just facilitated return of the rest of stuff taken that I had not computed missing yet. Sure, with his name and address, I'd now have a better come-back on it after the event, I would not be watching the radar screen and alerting for every blip on a neighborhood south-east Asian male on a bike that comes the other way, when I am out on my own bike. .
I keep no less than 4 weapons leaning up against to side of front door too- but in the event stormed out to him barehanded. Fortunately for whoever, nothing directly physical developed.There was some terse conversation finger-pointing and arm-waving went on, but not much above that entry-level.
As some bloke on Gumtree probably correctly pointed out...words to effect...by rights, morally you should have just clobbered him on the spot..but cudos for keeping reasonably cool.. if you had flogged him, probably VicPol e would have presently carted you in handcuffs while he got the last laugh watching you leave.