Former Bok great sees the lighter side after making citizen's arrest

Images surfaced of De Villiers tearing after a shoplifter, who was stealing chocolates, at a butchery.

"I watched him the whole time without him seeing that I was watching him," De Villiers told Afrikaans publication Netwerk24.

"And when I looked again, he just slowly started walking out. And when he walked out, I also slowly walked behind him.

"When I said 'hey', he looked around and started running. Then I just said to myself, but I must also run now. And then I ran out of my sandals and glasses and finally across the road."

The Springbok legend hauled in the shoplifter and turned him over to the security personnel, with the incident going viral in South Africa.

The butchery has since released the security footage of the incident.

On Friday morning, De Villiers appeared on KFM radio to talk about the incident.

"I heard this morning someone said that I was wearing Havaianas, but no, it was Adidas," he laughed when chatting to KFM.

Presenter Darren Simpson also joked with the former Springbok, suggesting that he must have been worried about his knee, with De Villiers having battled with a knee issue throughout his playing career.

"That's what I was also thinking," De Villiers laughed.

"I got myself into this position, and I was just trying to do a good deed. 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 flip, 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."

"Then, 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," he added.

Unsurprisingly, De Villiers has also got a bit of stick from his teammates on the 2007 World Cup winning squad's WhatsApp group.

His former centre partner, now Lions defence coach, Jaque Fourie, was one of the players that laid into him.

"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 (sandals) on."