Mad dash to catch thief
Asports shop retailer was taken on a rough ride after chasing a thief into a getaway car.
Philip Pearpoint was left battered and bruised after a mad dash chasing a thief out of Turners Sports store in Feilding on Monday.
The store manager saw a man make off with about $600 worth of clothing from a rack outside, so he charged out and jumped into the car alongside him in an attempt to stop the thief.
The car sped off and took the 59-year-old on a wild 700-metre ride up Manchester St on to South St, before he was dumped on the side of the road.
Pearpoint wasn’t sure how fast they were going, but it felt ‘‘pretty quick’’, and he was fearful of being thrown out at high speed, as the thief beside him tried to open the front passenger door.
While hanging on to the handbrake, in an attempt to try to stop the car and stop himself getting thrown out, Pearpoint was telling the offenders if they slowed down he’d get out.
As the car rounded the corner on to South St, it slowed down enough for Pearpoint to get out.
He can’t remember if he was thrown out, or he jumped, but help soon arrived.
‘‘I couldn’t tell you if he looked like Father Christmas or looked like a girl.’’
Pearpoint was left with a black eye, a sore head and scrapes on his leg, back and arm, and one regret – that he had jumped in the car. ‘‘It was a spur of the moment thing that we do, but this one didn’t go right.’’
His suspicions had been aroused when he noticed the car parked half on the road.
‘‘I was two or three paces towards the door when the guy grabbed a big armful of clothing off the rack and I was running towards him when he’s going away from the rack.
‘‘There was a female driver and I opened the door and dived in to get the keys to stop the car getting away. Immediately the thief in the back seat starts punching me in the head repeatedly.’’
Pearpoint said that he’s been working at the store for 42 years and has caught eight to 10 thieves each year.
The shop couldn’t get insurance against shoplifting during business hours, only against burglaries after dark, so that’s why he made such an effort to stop thieves.
‘‘People say ‘you’re an idiot’. We are known for being proactive and we’re not letting them get away with it if we can help.’’
Two years ago he received a cracked jaw when a thief hit him, and two years before that he broke his wrist when banging on the car window of another shoplifter, he said.
This time he felt ‘‘incredibly lucky’’ to have not come out worse off.
‘‘ Immediately the thief in the back seat starts punching me in the head repeatedly.’’
Philip Pearpoint