'Batman's here!' Trick-or-treating father detains pantless driver for police

Mark Lowe has a new nickname at home: "Bat-Dad."

For Halloween, hedressed up Tuesday as Batman to take his daughter trick-or-treating. Turns out, his neighbourhood needed a superhero that night.

While walking in Redcliff, Alta.,his family witnessed a car crashing into two other vehicles parked on the street.

"I actually thought it was an explosion at first, it was so intense," Lowe told the Calgary Eyeopener Thursday morning. "So obviously I just automatically ran down the street, you know, to make sure everybody was OK."

And so began Lowe's night as Batman, helping keep his community safe.

"I asked the guy, was he OK? And he just turned and looked at me and just got out of the car and just started freaking out," Lowe said. "I thought to myself, 'Yep, this guy's just absolutely wired to the moon.'"

'Batman's here!'

The driver got out of the car and was clearly distressed. Lowe said he believed the man was on drugs. He also looked surprised to see Batman outside his car.

"He's probably thinking he's hallucinating," Lowe said. "He's like, 'what the hell's going on? Batman's here!'"

The driver pulled his pants down around his ankles and ran into a neighbour's back yard, Lowe said. The man then picked up a barbecue and smashed it repeatedly against the pavement, he said.

• Listen to Bat-Dad's full interview on the Calgary Eyeopener:

Lowe and another neighbour kept talking to him, trying to calm him down and keep him in the area until emergency services arrived.

"My reaction was,'this guy needs to stay here.' Obviously, I could see he was away with the fairies," Lowe said.

The RCMP came and took the man to hospital.

He later was charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle, dangerous drivingand breaches of court conditions, a police spokesperson told CBCNews Thursday afternoon.

'Is it really Batman?'

The next day, Lowe went to the station to write out a statement for an RCMP officer.

"He kept coming in and saying, 'It's Batman! Is it really Batman?' And he said, 'I don't know, what are you going to sign on your statement? Is it going to be a name, is it going to be Batman? What's your alias?'

"And I said, 'Officer, you need to stop 'cause I can't write my statement because I can't stop laughing.'"

Lowe may not donhis Batman costume and fightcrime again any time soon, but his daughterat leastfeels he's more than earned his new nickname.

With files from Caroline Wagner and the Calgary Eyeopener