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Petrice Tarrant / Things
A woman was attacked walking down the Te Waihou walkway (file photo).
A woman who was assaulted while walking in Blue Spring near Putaruru warns others to be vigilant.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said she was on her way back to her car at the Whites Rd end of the Te Waihou Walkway on Aug. 26 around 5:45 p.m. when a man with a fishing pole approached her.
He asked her if anyone else was fishing higher up the runway, and when she said no, he pushed her to the ground.
Petrice Tarrant / Things
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“I started screaming and trying to fight him,” he said. Stuff.
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“It was an instant panic and instantly I started screaming and kicking.
“It was really scary.”
The woman said she did not remember the man getting off her, but the next thing she knew they were both standing.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m not going to hurt you.’
The man told him to go back down the track as he walked to the parking lot, but then he changed his mind and told him to stay there while he left.
He grabbed his fishing pole and started walking, then running, to his car in the parking lot on Whites Rd and away.
She said that when he got far enough away, she called the police so she could give them a description of the car she was leaving in.
It was a green sedan and the man was a white male in his 40s to 50s wearing black rubber boots with yellow soles and a hat, he said.
Having done that walk hundreds of times, she said she was shaken by the incident like before and that she thought she would be safe there.
“The following week was pretty horrible, I was really nervous and not feeling well.
“I feel so much better now.
“I have not gone out for a walk yet but that will come.
“I am very grateful that nothing else happened to me.”
She was urging people to be vigilant and not walk alone.
“I don’t wish on anyone what happened to me.
“I definitely feel different about walking alone.”
While she started out feeling scared, now she’s frustrated.
“I am frustrated for myself, for the community, because now fear has been instilled in people.”
A police spokeswoman confirmed that they had received a report of an assault on the catwalk around 6 p.m. on August 26.
Police attended and conducted investigations in the area, but could not locate the alleged offender.
Investigations into the incident are ongoing.
