The 28-year-old man appeared to have scaled a fence to access boats at Leigh Martin Marine early Monday morning.

Once inside, the man allegedly tried to remove engines from about six second-hand boats at the Thomas Mitchell Drive business.

The man had limited access to tools and appeared unable to lift the detached engines over the back fence.

His unsuccessful attempts came to an end about 7.30am when employees from adjacent business Masta Scaffold wrestled the burglar to the ground.

The man had been hiding between boat engines and had been confrontational with staff members when caught.

He was arrested by police a short time later.

Police allege the man had previously targeted boat motors at TBS Marine at Killara and had stolen items from BCF.

The man is also accused of stealing $1300 worth of jewellery from a home in Wodonga.

Leigh Martin Marine sales manager Andy Collins searched through security footage on Monday in a bid to see how the man had accessed the building.

“It’s just disruptive – we will have to do repairs and get the boats back up to what they were,” he said. 

“He displaced everything and pulled the fuel tanks out.

“He had an engine placed in a boat in the corner that he would have tried to put over the fence.

“Whether it had been too heavy for him, I don’t know.”

A nearby car thought to belong to the man had bolt cutters and wire cutters inside.

The man had been spoken to by police shortly after midnight on Monday before the foiled burglary attempt.

Police say the motors targeted at TBS Marine were worth about $10,000 and the targeted engines and damage at Leigh Martin Marine worth the same amount.

Detective Acting Sergeant Justin Foots said the man was aggressive when confronted by the Masta Scaffold staff members. 

Business owner Mat Martin said security measures would be reviewed at both businesses.

“You always hope it’s never going to happen to you, but it does,” he said.