Being shot at is all in a day's work

Ian Simonsen was having a snooze in his car when it was shot twice. Photo / Duncan Brown

Ian Simonsen is taking being shot at in his stride.

The 64-year-old was abruptly woken from his roadside nap to the noise of shots entering the back of his car.

He brushed it off and drove home, not realising until the next day what the sound really was.

"I thought it might have been water from an irrigation sprinkler, I just didn't worry about it at all."

Mr Simonsen is the owner of commercial cleaning company Te Mata Services.

Due to the erratic working hours, he often pulls over for a cat-nap.

He has done this for the past 20 years without incident.

That all changed last Friday night.

He stopped on the Hawke's Bay expressway near the Links Rd intersection after he felt himself nodding off.

He chose a brightly lit area to park and even thought to himself , "I'll be safe here."

About 11.30pm, two shots - believed to be from a .22 rifle, smashed through the back window and a back panel, just centimetres from where he lay.

"I can't feel lucky because I was totally ignorant to what happened."

"Everyone seems to be taking it very seriously, though," he said.

"I wasn't hurt so how can I really be upset?"

Police are puzzled by the shots. They do not know who fired them or why.

"He was lucky he wasn't seriously injured," Detective Sergeant Jason Crowe said.

The shots could have been fired by someone hunting possums or rabbits, Mr Crowe said: "It was an unusual event."

Mr Simonsen harbours no ill feelings towards whoever it was that pulled the trigger. He believes the shooter thought the car was abandoned and must have got the "fright of his life" when it started to be driven away.

As a "clean Christian," Mr Simonsen said he did not have an enemy in the world.

A police officer suggested Mr Simonsen buy a Lotto ticket, to which he replied: "It was God looking after me."

He said he did hope the person responsible came forward even if it was just to receive a "whack" around the backside.

Mr Crowe urged those responsiblefor Friday's incident to contact police.

-Anyone with information about the incident should phone Mr Crowe at HB Police on 06 831 0700, or information can be left anonymously on Crimestoppers, ph 0800 555 111.