METRO VANCOUVER Canada July 6 2013 -- Jim Dans has been cussed out, spat on, pushed and otherwise badly misused by angry people.He works as a security guard, and tickets cars for a living. It comes with the territory.
But on June 21, Dans finally met his Waterloo when a young man mercilessly kicked him into unconsciousness over a $30 parking ticket.
The 53-year-old Surrey resident said that when he finally came to, his head looked and felt "three times too big."
Asked what he'd say to his attacker, if he could, he replied without hesitation.
"I'd like to ask him why he wanted to kill me, and why he wanted to kill me over a $30 parking ticket," Dans said. "Is it that expensive? A $30 parking ticket? Geez, I spend $30 on dinner, so, a $30 parking ticket to me is nothing."
Surrey Mounties are looking for the attacker, described as an East Indian man in his late teens or early 20s.
"We are asking anyone who may have witnessed this unprovoked attack to please contact us," Cpl. Bert Paquet said. "This is an isolated incident, however, it is nonetheless a despicable act on a resident from our community who was just doing his job."
Dans had been dispatched by his employer, Concord Security, to the 10200-block of 168th Street, near the Pacific Academy private school in the Fraser Heights area of Surrey, to deal with a complaint. A graduation ceremony was being held at the academy for students of Fleetwood Park secondary school.
Dans said he was ticketing a Honda civic when the young fellow approached, wearing a pin-stripe dress shirt, beige khaki pants and black pointy shoes. He was about five feet 10 inches tall, 150 pounds and had short dark hair.
"He came up and says, 'Why are you giving me a ticket?'" Dans recalled. Dans told him he was responding to a complaint.
"He parked too close to a driveway. You have to be three metres from a driveway so I put a ticket on the car and was about to take a picture."
At that point, he said, the young man stepped in front of the rear licence plate, to block the photo. So Dans went around to the front end of the car, to try to take a shot from that angle.
"He basically said, 'Well this is what we do to parking enforcement.' He pushed me to the ground then kicked me in the head. I was out cold after that. I was out for six hours."
Dans has worked for Concord for seven months, and Surrey city parking enforcement before that. He'd been in the business about five years. He's seen a lot, but nothing so outright vicious as this.
"I thought he was just going to scream at me," Dans said. "Most people's mouths are like sewers, so I get so used to that all the time. Like, every day of the week. I've been spit in the face in the last year; some guy pushed me out of the way for giving him a parking ticket. It's about the closest I got to abuse. Most of it is verbal abuse. When I talked to him, I didn't think he was ever going to do what he planned on doing," he said.
Besides being haunted by the ordeal, Dans required eight stitches to close a gash in his forehead, suffers from searing headaches and has tunnel vision in his left eye.
"Somehow it looks like I got up off the road, walked across the street, got into my car and phoned my wife, and she phoned 911. I don't remember anything after the guy kicked me in the head the first time.
"He kicked me in the head I don't know how many times. Also he bruised my throat, so I don't know if he stepped on my throat, kicked me in the throat. It looks like his boot or whatever got caught in my collarbone. There's a black and blue bruise on my collarbone."
Police and paramedics found Dans inside his car, bleeding heavily from his forehead. They took him to hospital, Dans said, where he was treated for a concussion and "they sewed my head up."
Paquet said that when police arrived on scene many people were still exiting the school and parking lot. "Police believe that the suspect may have left the school right before the end of the ceremony, or just as it ended," Paquet said. Police are asking witnesses or anyone with information concerning the assault to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, quoting file number 2013-78793.
Source- The Vancouver Sun