A Montreal university student is being hailed as a hero after he stopped a masked intruder who broke into his family's home while his parents and sister slept upstairs.
Nineteen-year-old Charles Seitz had just returned from a party in August when he walked into the kitchen and came face to face with a burglar.
“I saw a guy jump out of one of our rooms,” Seitz recalls. “He had a bright flashlight and the house was pitch black, so it blinded me… I froze for a second or two.”
The back door was left unlocked so Seitz could enter.
A few seconds later, a masked man rushed at him.
“I punched him in the face, grabbed him, knocked him down and put him in a chokehold,” Seitz said.
As a former high school wrestling champion trained in jiu-jitsu, Seitz had the skill and calm to handle the situation.

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“Legs around him and I have a chokehold and I'm behind him. I felt him grab my arms, but it only took a couple of seconds.”
His father, Chris Seitz, awoke to the sound of his son calling for help and rushed downstairs only to find Charles had already restrained the man.
“Charles was very calm. I was so impressed with how calm he was through it all,” his father said. “I remember him saying, 'Sir, I'm monitoring your airway.'
The family held the man until police arrived about 15 minutes later. Charles' sister called 911 while two men pinned the suspect to the ground.
“I just told him, ‘You’re the coolest person on the planet,’” Jacqueline Seitz said. “I definitely felt safer that night when he was in the house.”
Georgita Onisei, a 58-year-old man suspected of at least 20 other break-ins in the area, was arrested in the incident, police said.
According to British media, a man with the same name previously served six years in a German prison for 13 burglaries.
“I think the residents were very relieved,” said Christina Smith, Westmount's mayor. “This has caused a lot of stress for the people who experienced these incidents.”
Seitz was later awarded a certificate of commendation from the Montreal police for his quick actions.
Just a few weeks after the incident, he left home to begin his first year of study at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he admits the story was quite an icebreaker.
“He said, 'It was a real father-son moment,'” Chris Seitz told Global News.
The family has since installed CCTV cameras and takes extra care to lock their doors.
As for the suspect, he remains in custody and is due to appear in court in December.
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