Cross-code footy great Lote Tuqiri fought back when several men staged a home invasion and car theft at his Brisbane home on May 22.
The NRL and Wallabies icon confronted a group of thieves in the early hours of the morning before they stole a Volkswagen from his garage.
The vehicle was recovered on the Gold Coast on Sunday after he prevented the thieves from stealing another car from his property.
‘It was Friday morning, they came into the house and took the keys,’ the former Broncos and Souths star told News Corp.
‘I got woken up and there was six to eight of them – three carloads full.
‘They took one car but I stopped them taking a second.
NRL and Wallabies great Lote Tuqiri said he was in ‘fight or flight’ mode when he interrupted home invaders who stole a car from his Brisbane home
The 46-year-old was able to stop the crooks from stealing a second vehicle as they left a knife on the back seat
‘It’s scary when you think about it later, but at the time you just go on autopilot.
‘I went out roaring,’ he said of the moment he confronted the criminals.
‘They quickly got out of the second car and jumped into the other stolen cars and took off down the street.’
Tuqiri said the thieves gained access to the property through a side door and found car keys in his kitchen.
‘I was in fight or flight [mode],’ the 46-year-old said.
‘I was loud. I had to be the craziest bloke in the room.
‘Luckily nothing happened. In the back seat of the car was a knife they took from the kitchen drawer.’
A 19-year-old man was charged with one count each of unlawful use of motor vehicles, receiving tainted property, driving without a licence and disobeying the speed limit after police recovered the Volkswagen.
Tuqiri said up to eight thieves got into his Brisbane property through a side door
The footy legend is pictured running the ball for the Wallabies in 2003
The man was not charged in relation to the original theft.
Tuqiri compared his experience to what happened to his fellow ex-Wallaby, Toutai Kefu, when he was the victim of a home invasion in August 2021.
Kefu was almost stabbed to death in the horrific incident, and his wife was also knifed.
The judge who heard the case against the teenage home invaders likened the inside of the Wallabies legend’s family home in Coorparoo to a ‘war zone’, with police photos showing blood ‘splashed and smeared’ in the property.
Kefu’s wife, Rachel slipped in blood on the floor as she fought for her life, while the former rugby star suffered a ‘life-threatening’ injury after being stabbed in the stomach.
The teenagers entered the home in the early hours of August 16, 2021, armed with large knives with the purpose of stealing cars.
Rachel Kefu disturbed the intruders at 3.10am, with her screams awakening her husband Toutai, who jumped over a banister from the upstairs bedroom to defend his wife.
Both teenagers attacked him, but only one was found to have stabbed him in the chest. The knife penetrated 25mm into his liver, causing a life-threatening injury.
Kefu’s son Joshua and daughter Madison were also cut.
Tuqiri won premierships with the Broncos and Rabbitohs in an NRL career that spanned 167 games.
He quit the code at the end of the 2002 season to switch to union and played 67 Tests for the Wallabies, scoring 30 tries, before returning to rugby league in 2010 with the Wests Tigers.
