The mother of a 13-year-old boy who had his new bike crushed in a bungled mugging last week has been moved to tears by the support the family has received since the incident.
Members of the Te Atatu community have raised more than $600 towards replacing Alex Sutton's bike. It was damaged when he was on his way home about 5pm last Wednesday and a boy punched him in the back of the head, taking the new BMX bike he'd saved up for by doing a paper run for 18 months.
A passerby managed to retrieve the bike and scare off the attacker, and Alex was left uninjured -- but the BMX was damaged in the process, after being run over by the passerby's car.
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Since then, a Te Atatu community member has set up a bank account, encouraging people to help raise enough money to fix or replace the $480 bike.