LETHBRIDGE -- A Lethbridge man is uninjured after fending off a carjacking attempt by grabbing the knife from his attacker’s hand.
Rick Neudorf was parked on a residential street in the 200 block of 27 St. South Tuesday night, when a man slipped into the passenger seat of his truck.
“My door opened and this guy's in," Neudorf said, in an interview with CTV Lethbridge.
"All of a sudden, there's a knife on my throat and this guy’s yelling and screaming for me to drive!”
Neudorf, a former race car driver with some street smarts, had another plan.
“In my mind, I didn’t want to end up halfway between here and who knows where," he said.
The aspiring kidnapper withdrew the knife a bit, just enough, it turns out, for Neudorf to try to separate it from his grip.
"I grabbed it," he said.
That wasn't the end of the threat, however.
"I yanked it out of his hand, and then before I knew it, he had a second knife," he added.
"And then," he said, continuing, "he’s yelling that he’s going to f***ing kill me.”
According to Neudorf, a stranger named “Brady” had seen what was happening and called the attacker out of the vehicle.
Remarkably, the attacker got out.
“And then," Neudorf said, "the foot chase was on.”
The man ran to a home a few doors down, stole a bicycle and rode away. The Good Samaritan Brady contacted police, but wasn’t able to catch up to the suspect.
Police say they expect to release more information on the incident Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
Neudorf says he is grateful for the citizen who stopped to help.
He also has a simple message for Lethbridge residents heading out for a drive: “Number one, lock your doors all the time.”
He is also urging the community to stick together.
“If it wouldn’t have been for this Good Samaritan," he said, "I don’t know where I’d be right now. I definitely owe this guy.”
