A real-life Superhero wearing clothes in tights, a mask and a black and gold lycra suit, says he is helping to make the streets of Seattle safer by scaring away criminals.

The man, called Phoenix Jones, wears a bullet proof vest, and also has knife protection as well as being armed with a taser and tear gas. He says, when he walks into an area, criminals leave because they see the suit and do not want to seize him on.

It is nearly a case of Superman meets Batman as on most nights Phoenix walks into a comic store, enters a back room secreted behind shelves and is transformed into his character.

He has already managed to stop a man breach into a car and possibly stealing it. The would be victim, known as Dan, was walking back to his vehicle in a car park when he saw a man with a metal slip trying to open his car.

Dan said: "He started sticking it down between the window and the rubber stripe." Dan began to call 911, but said help arrived before he even ended dialling.

He explained, "From the right, this guy comes stylish in, wearing this skin-tight rubber, black and gold suit, and starts chasing him away."

Phoenix is not the only costume clad crime warrior in Seattle. There are other eight members of his Rain City Super hero group who also walk the streets, looking out for crime and ready to fight it.

Since Phoenix started his movement nine months ago, he has been stabbed and was exposed with a gun several times, but received no serious injuries.

Unfortunately still he did not find the man who was breaking into Dan's car. "I symbolize that the average person doesn't have to walk around and see bad things and do nothing."