A MAN was robbed of £500 and run over by a Gumtree seller when he went to collect a car, he claims.
Guy Field, 60, was driven to a residential car park in Bristol, where he was struck by the same Peugeot 208 he was hoping to buy.
4
4
4
He says after taking his cash, the seller jumped behind the wheel and drove off, hitting him square on and causing him to be flung over the bonnet and roof.
Guy told the Sun: “I can’t believe some muppet is willing to run me over for 500 quid. If I was dragged under the car for 50 yards I’d be dead.”
He’d travelled from his home in Launceston, Cornwall, on January 22 to see the vehicle and pay for it.
The seller had met him at Bristol Temple Meades station and insisted they go for a drive before pulling up in Fox Road around two miles away to complete the transaction.
They had initially agreed a price of £800 but Guy said he pointed out from doing a car check it was listed as a Category S write-off and would cost several hundred to fix.
The lower fee of £500 was then agreed.
However, after examining the logbook and then handing over the money in cash, Guy was just closing the bonnet when he said “it’s clicked with me”.
The seller was back behind the wheel “and he’s got a big cheesy smile on his face”, he said.
“I’m thinking, oh s***… It’s like when your life flashes before your eyes. It happens really fast, but it seems like a year.
“He absolutely floors the throttle, drops the clutch and runs me over.
“I went over the top of the car – across the bonnet, across the windscreen, across the roof and down the back, and there’s just loads of wheel spinning as he disappears.
Guy added: “I landed on my elbow, on my back, on my arse, then on my head.”
Disoriented, he took out his phone to call the police and asked someone walking past what street they were on.
Cops arrived “within a minute” and offered to take him to hospital, but facing a long journey home and having left his Labrador half the day, he asked to be taken to the station instead.
He said the officers told him: “You’re lucky you live in Cornwall because Bristol is the Wild West.”
On the way home on the train, Guy said he was “sat in the corner crying” and a woman came over to ask if he was okay.
The following day, he spotted the same car back for sale on Gumtree again.
Police have since confirmed the car has been recovered and “enquiries to identify the driver are ongoing”.
Guy said: “The point of it is, I’m a damn savvy dude, and if this can happen to me it can happen to anyone.
“These idiots keep spamming these ads and actively trying to rob people.”
He regularly buys and sells expensive items on Gumtree and says he’s annoyed the company hasn’t done more to help.
“I tried to ring Gumtree 50 times and eventually got through to their call centre in South Africa.
“They haven’t communicated with me, they haven’t said s***.”
He said in order to sell anything he has to verify his identity through a number of means.
He added: “These guys, I don’t know if they have burner phones. I assume they are really clever or really stupid, I assume they’re stupid.”
Guy explained he’s been going over all the details from the day in his mind since and recalls how he “smelled a rat” as soon as the seller rang him.
He said he was keen to change plans and meet at a different location rather than the station, and gave him a postcode, which he later realised was the residential car park they ended up at.
Guy had refused as he could hear other male voices speaking in the background.
“I was envisioning a load of other men turning up,” he said.
And then the seller was insistent on being paid in cash, asking him over and over during the short drive if he had money on him.
Guy continued: “He kept looking at me, he asked me how old I am before I got there… I think he was weighing up the whole time to attack me.”
He added: “I’m worried this kind of thing is happening all the time, but it’s not getting publicity.
“I’m 6ft1 and 18 stone but what if I was a young woman or a pensioner? This guy was willing to kill me for so little money.”
A spokesperson for Avon & Somerset Police said: “Officers are investigating after a man was struck with a car during in aggravated vehicle taking last week.
“The victim, who had attempted to purchase a vehicle from an online seller, had cash stolen and was struck by the vehicle which failed to stop in Fox Road, Easton, Bristol, at around 5.20pm on Wednesday 22 January.
“The vehicle has been recovered by police and enquiries to identify the driver are ongoing.
“If you witnessed the incident, or have relevant footage which could aid our enquiries, please call 101 and quote reference 5225018782 to the call handler.”
The Sun has contacted Gumtree for comment.
Do you know more or have a similar story? Email ryan.merrifield@thesun.co.uk
4
