Using one thief as a human shield, 50-year-old Australian father fends off group of marauders in his underwear



Australia celebrates Boxing Day on Dec. 26 — a day on which the poor were traditionally presented with gifts. The day's name took on a whole new meaning this year for one Queensland father of two who found himself pitted against a pack of marauders in a no-holds-barred contest.

What are the details?

50-year-old Steve Middleton woke around 4:30 a.m. Monday morning to the sound of a commotion outside his Mermaid Waters residence in the Gold Coast. He spotted someone rifling through his car.

"I just assumed it was my daughter's partner," Middleton told the Gold Coast Bulletin. "Then I saw another head pop up on the other side, going through the other car. I was like 'Oh s--t, we're being robbed.'"

There was little time to fully dress for the occasion, so the Australian father simply "threw on some jocks and ran outside."

Middleton caught one of the thieves off guard when he bolted into action.

"I thought 'bugger it, I'll grab this bloke' and gave him a bit of a tackle," Middleton recounted to the Courier Mail.

Holding the thief by the shirt, the father of two soon realized he was outnumbered.

"I didn't realize there was other kids in the other car up the street. I didn't think anything of it," Middleton told 9 News.

Reinforcements idled nearby in a Mazda CX-3 and a BMW X4, both stolen from homes in the area.

As Middleton continued to hold the first suspect, another dressed all in white and armed with a knife rushed to intervene.

The second suspect slashed Middleton with the blade, but it wasn't enough to even the odds. The second suspect ultimately turned tail and ran.

A third marauder then rushed Middleton waving a baseball bat.

"Once the bat came out, I tried to use the young fella I was holding onto as my little shield," said Middleton.

After things went south once more for the marauders — particularly for the improvised human shield — they struggled to get back to the stolen vehicles.

According to Middleton, one of the thieves was "squealing like anything." The defeated marauders drove away hurriedly. They have not yet been apprehended.

The brutal Boxing Day brawl was caught on CCTV:

\u201cAussie man fights off 5 attackers in his underwear\u201d
— Victor MacNamara (@Victor MacNamara) 1672186974

When police came by to take statements and check for fingerprints, Middleton reportedly asked them, "Am I right to go fishing yet?"

He told the Courier Mail that the knife wound on his hand ultimately kept him from going fishing on Boxing Day, but he "absolutely" intends to go once it heals, noting, "I work too hard not to."

Australia Is Denying Life-Saving Organ Transplants To Unvaxxed Patients

The Australian state of Queensland is denying life-saving organ transplants to patients who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 quarantine camp facility being constructed in Australia



A regional COVID-19 quarantine facility is being constructed in Queensland, Australia. The Queensland government is building the coronavirus quarantine camp in Toowoomba, about 80 miles from the city of Brisbane.

The new COVID-19 quarantine facility is expected to have 500 beds available by the end of the year and a total of 1,000 beds by the end of the first quarter of 2022. Construction has already started at the site near the Wellcamp Airport. The COVID-19 quarantine facility will be built by property development firm Wagner Corporation, which owns the land. Queensland government will operate the regional facility once it is operational.

JUST IN - Australia builds the first "quarantine facility" to "keep the community safe," Premier of Queensland anno… https://t.co/8SWhSqSAHx

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) 1629969999.0

"As Australia contends with the dangerous Delta variant, Queensland must have alternatives to hotel quarantine that offer enhanced public safety," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a statement. "That's why we're getting on with building the Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre, a 1000-bed, dedicated facility near Wellcamp airport that will greatly reduce reliance on hotel quarantine."

Australia requires travelers to the country to provide a "negative COVID-19 PCR or RT-PCR test to your airline when checking in for your flight at the departure point." Once travelers arrive in Australia, they must quarantine for 14 days at a designated facility in the port of arrival.

Previously, visitors to Queensland were forced to quarantine if they have been in a COVID-19 hot spot in the previous 14 days.

However, on Friday the Queensland government announced, "Queensland residents and those intending to relocate to Queensland who have been in a hotspot in the last 14 days or since the identified start date (whichever is shorter) will not be allowed to enter Queensland, without an exemption. Exemptions will only be granted in extreme exceptional circumstances."

The order is in effect until Sept. 8.

Costs for the facility were not immediately released, but Deputy Premier Steven Miles defended the construction of the building, saying, "When you consider that the last lockdown alone cost more than a billion dollars in economic impact, and compensation, you can see just what fantastic value it will be."

The Australian federal government previously declared that it would not help pay for Queensland's quarantine camp.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison argued that the new facility "did not seek to meet the national guidelines."

"But the Queensland Government was always in a position to go ahead with that facility, if that's what they wish to do and to have people quarantine there rather than in hotel facilities," Morrison added. "That is entirely a matter for the Queensland Government. And they've made that decision. And they could have done that months ago if that's what they wished to do. But good for them. And I wish them every success."

Morrison previously proposed an alternative 1,000-bed quarantine facility at the Damascus Barracks at Pinkenba, which the federal government would pay for and allow the Queensland government to operate.

According to the Queensland health department, there are currently two new COVID-19 cases in Queensland, which has a population of over 5.2 million. Since the pandemic began, Queensland has had a total of 1,972 coronavirus cases, and 1,908 have recovered. There have been a total of seven COVID-19 deaths in the state in northeastern Australia.

'Sexist' Body Parts Rejected by Doctors: Adam's Apple and Achilles' Tendon Deemed 'Irrelevant and Misogynistic'

Human body parts named after "men, kings and gods" have been deemed irrelevant and misogynistic by some Australian doctors who no longer seek to salute the ideas of dead, male anatomists.