\u201cShe had her face up against the window, just looking at me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The man claimed she was \u201cmouthing off\u201d but about what, he doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
The young woman got out of her car and started walking towards the man, \u201cyelling and bloody carrying on\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
He then alleged she turned back to her car and spoke to three men and another woman inside the vehicle.<\/p>\n
At that point, the man\u2019s wife arrived with their lunch, unaware of what had happened.<\/p>\n
She got into the passenger seat, unwrapped a piece of fish and skimmed through a magazine as she ate. <\/p>\n
Her husband started the vehicle and drove about a metre before being stopped unexpectedly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of these young fellows walked out in front of my wagon,\u201d the man said. <\/p>\n
He saw the younger man yelling and got out of his car.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just stopped and said to him, \u2018What\u2019s your problem?\u2019, end of story. Because that\u2019s all I remember.\u201d <\/p>\n
He believes a second man attacked him from behind as he spoke with the man blocking his path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just got in their car and drove off,\u201d the man said. <\/p>\n
His wife got out of the vehicle to find her husband trying to pull himself off the ground. A nearby shop worker had rushed to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a big pool of blood behind his head, and I just went [into] panic mode,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
She called her husband of 54 years the love of her life.<\/p>\n
According to medical notes, the man was struck on the front of his head several times, fell backwards, hit the back of his head and lost consciousness for at least a minute.<\/p>\n
He was diagnosed with a frontal traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage, which is bleeding into the space around the brain caused by head trauma. <\/p>\n
When the Northern Advocate visited him at home nearly three weeks later, he still had bruising around his left eye and two healed cuts above it.<\/p>\n
The man said he had ongoing pain and felt dizzy if he stood up too quickly. He struggles with loud noises despite previously being hard of hearing. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m deaf as a bloody post,\u201d he said, gesturing to his hearing aids. <\/p>\n
But now loud noises, such as a door slamming, were intense.<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s wife praised those who helped her husband, including people who kept his wallet safe while he was rushed to Whang\u0101rei Hospital. <\/p>\n
He was grateful for the emergency responders and those who assisted.<\/p>\n
Police have not made any arrests but said they are working to find those involved.<\/p>\n
The man wants his attackers caught. He said he had been told the group left Whang\u0101rei and police believed they were travelling in a rental car.<\/p>\n
Northland Criminal Investigation Branch detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Cooper wouldn\u2019t give further details other than saying police believed the man was approached by two men and a woman before being assaulted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears one of the men has then punched the victim, knocking him to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 30, police released photos of a man they said may be able to assist with their investigation.<\/p>\n
Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the man in this photo, who they want to speak to in relation to an incident in Whang\u0101rei. Photo \/ NZ Police
Police want to hear from the man pictured as they investigate a serious assault that happened on April 22. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n
Cooper appealed for anyone with information or footage related to the assault to contact police via 105 online or by phone, referencing file number 260422\/5756.<\/p>\n
Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.<\/p>\n
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whang\u0101rei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cShe had her face up against the window, just looking at me,\u201d he said. The man claimed she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[217661,1443,74,7818,6375,32034,682,4250,26224,55914,3028,217662,5972,26225,44134,8321,2082,15415,101,156242,5158,111,43,139,1067,69,14727,675,5198,6448,1326,44970,28723,24002,217660,1361,85480,1869,6923,1842],"class_list":["post-424362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-74yearold","tag-about","tag-after","tag-allegedly","tag-appeal","tag-assaulted","tag-being","tag-blood","tag-broad","tag-brodie","tag-chip","tag-cowardpunched","tag-day","tag-daylight","tag-exclusively","tag-fish","tag-for","tag-information","tag-left","tag-lying","tag-man","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-outside","tag-police","tag-pool","tag-reporter","tag-shop","tag-spoke","tag-stone","tag-stranger","tag-stumpys","tag-that","tag-unfolded","tag-whangrei","tag-what","tag-wife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}