Tradie lucky to be alive after violent attack by 'two little fat buggers'

A Melbourne tradie said he is lucky to be alive after he was attacked by "a couple of little fat buggers" and had $20,000 of his tools stolen.

Patrick Reid woke to a noise out the front of his Notting Hill home around 5am yesterday and saw someone rifling through the back of his work truck.

Wearing just the undies he was sleeping in, the plumber gave chase and managed to catch the man he describes as slim build, Caucasian and aged in his early 20s.

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"He would be visibly shaken, he ran into a wall - well, I threw him into a brick wall and it's broken, so he's going to be hurt," Patrick told Today.

But as the 61-year-old tried to apprehend the thief, he was set upon by another two from behind.

"While I was detaining him, he had some gentlemen come from behind and rearrange this beautiful face with some bricks - so no more modelling for me," he joked.

Patrick was left bloodied and bruised after a sickening assault where he was hit multiple times with a brick and stabbed with a pair of scissors.

"The two gentlemen that came from behind and beat me with bricks were between six foot - six foot three, aged 20 and 28, white and one with a short beard," he said.

"The fellow with the brick had a stubbly growth, was a fat, out of shape person and the other gentleman dragging the skinny bloke away was a little fat bugger too, but it was a bit hard to see with all the blood."

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The criminals escaped with Patrick's belongings, but he said he is lucky to be alive and his family and emergency service crews who helped him have reminded him of this.

"I'm missing tools, but those who love me are really angry that I put myself in that position where I may not have been on the planet as we speak," he said.

"The doctors, the police, the nurses, everybody in the hospital, they were brilliant, but they did lay it down pretty heavily I'm lucky to be here."

See what else Patrick had to say in the video above