Jean de Villiers has told his side of the story after a clip of the former Springbok captain detaining a shoplifter went viral on social media.
Screenshots from surveillance footage showed the 109-Test-capped centre racing after the suspect, before returning and handing him over to a security guard.
The incident took place at The Boer & Butcher shop in Paarl on 23 January. The eagle-eyed De Villiers spotted a man slipping sweets into his pockets before walking out of the shop. De Villiers then followed the alleged thief outside the store, and after the man tried to evade him, the 41-year-old caught him, after giving chase and lost his slip-slops in the process.
The news of De Villiers’ heroics spread across the globe and in an interview with Cape radio station KFM, he spoke about the widespread responses he has seen.
“I got myself into this position and I was just trying to do a good deed,” he said in the interview.
“I thought I would just tap the guy on his shoulder and say, ‘listen buddy, I saw what you did, don’t you want to go for the ribeye special rather than the chocolates?’ But when I got closer he started running and then I realised I’m too deep into this now not to do anything. So I had to run, and was just praying my knees would hold up.
“Halfway into the chase I saw there was a massive queue at Home Affairs, and then I thought ‘what if I can’t catch the dude?’ That would be pretty embarrassing, but luckily it all turned out well.
“When something like this happens, there are obviously a lot of the guys commenting on it. So, my good friend Jaque Fourie, who I played a lot of Test matches with, he reckons that I would have been better if I had played rugby with plakkies on.”
WATCH: ‘Super’ Jean swoops on crook
De Villiers hopes his example is one followed by his countrymen: “I would like to think every South African would do something when they see something like that happening.
“We’re so quick to complain about the wrongs in our country, but if we don’t do anything about it, then it won’t get better. So I’d like to think most people would have done exactly the same thing.”
Photo: Touchline/Getty Images