Captain Jack Harkness Stops A Real Life Robbery

By Saralyn Smith | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

On television, John Barrowman plays Captain Jack Harkness – a never aging, never dying, time travelling 51st century man from BBC’s Doctor Who and Torchwood.  He protects the world from alien invasions, creatures that slip through the Cardiff Rift, and global conspiracies, although not without venturing into some pretty dark places.  In real life, though, Barrowman is an affable singer and veteran of television, film and musical theater who never seems to be above a music video parody or a Katy Perry singalong.  In an Glasgow hotel this weekend, real and fictional personas collided when John Barrowman busted a burglar late last week.

WalesOnline reports that Barrowman is currently in Glasgow starring as Robinson Crusoe at a local pantomime and staying at the Radisson Blu hotel.  After returning to the hotel after attending a concert with his parents, Barrowman heard a kerfuffle in the room across the hall:

“The concierge was trying to sort my air conditioning.

“We heard this woman scream and shout, ‘Stop him, stop him.’ We saw this young boy running down the hallway.

“I told the concierge to chase him and called the hotel operator and told them to block the staircase so we could get him.

“The lad had tried to get away through the staff elevator and punched the concierge.

“I grabbed the kid’s ankles, yanked him to the ground and then pulled him out into the hallway. I pinned him down.

“My tour manager then arrived and the three of us held him down until the police came.”

Apparently, Barrowman only caught one of two thieves, but that’s still pretty good for a 44-year-old star of stage and screen.  To top it all off, Barrowman said he’d like to put the thief he caught to work at the pantomime where he is currently performing to give him a “sense of responsibility”.  He found it sad that the young man in question was only 14 or 15 and looked like he was on drugs, and would like to give him a second chance.

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