Man dragged 50 metres by car

'I instinctively grabbed onto the vertical part of the window and held on for dear life as they drove off'

September 12, 2016

Bianca Pindral 2 minutes read

Brendon MacDonald demonstrates how he moved closer to the vehicle's window with his cellphone before the woman grabbed his phone and drove off.

A 40-year-old man was dragged over 50 metres by a car, after two people posing as Community Policing Forum (CPF) members stole his cellphone and drove off with it.

Brendon MacDonald said he was walking home from a restaurant in the early hours of Saturday morning when a vehicle stopped next to him.

He claimed he heard a woman’s voice coming from the car, asking if they could borrow his cellphone. When he asked who they were, the woman said she was from the CPF and their radio wasn’t working at that time.

“A red light immediately went on in my head and I said I would punch the number in myself instead,” Brendon said.

He said he leaned towards the window to hear what the woman was saying.

“She forcefully grabbed the phone out of my hand and the driver hit the gas pedal,” Brendon said.

“I instinctively grabbed onto the vertical part of the window and held on for dear life as they drove off,” Brendon said.

Brendon said he saw four houses pass by before realising he couldn’t hold on any longer.

“I fell to the ground and was unconscious for a few seconds. When I woke up, I jumped up and ran in the direction of the vehicle, but I was too slow and disorientated to identify it.”

When the adrenaline wore off, Brendon started to feel his skin burning where the tar had scraped most of it off his arms and knees.

“It felt like I was on fire and the blood just poured from the wounds.”

He said he walked around the corner to his home. His parents were shocked to see how much pain he was in.

He was later taken to his doctor where his broken hand was put in a plaster cast, his scraped knee was bandaged, and he was given medication to help him cope with the pain.

“The worst thing about this situation is not that my cellphone was stolen, nor is it the pain, but rather the fact that I cannot do my job properly because of my injuries.”

Brendon is a storeman for a Pratley Steel warehouse. “I can’t pick up boxes or write properly. It is both disappointing and frustrating.”

Henry Carsen, chairperson of CPF Sector 8, warns community members not to fall into this trap. “CPF members will always have their CPF reflector jackets on and will carry identification cards with them,” Henry said. “If you are not certain whether or not a person is a CPF member, ask them for identification and report them if they don’t have it with them.”