By Meghan Lawrence
Soane Mateo is lucky to be alive - but he's also "scared, very scared" and will be for some time.
The Otahuhu Herald newspaper delivery man was viciously beaten with a brick, punched and repeatedly stabbed in the back while waiting to collect papers in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Now, speaking from his hospital bed, the 46-year-old has a message for the two men who attacked him for no apparent reason.
"Stop putting innocent lives at risk.
"It is not worth it."
"I am a brother to somebody, I am a cousin to somebody, I am an uncle to my nieces and nephews. I have two boys and one girl and they are the purpose of everything."
Mateo was at the East Tamaki Rd Gull service station waiting to collect Herald newspapers for his part-time delivery job, which he has been doing for the past two months on top of his day job as a truck driver, when he was attacked.
"I got there around 3.10am and was waiting for the truck to come and then out of the blue there were two guys running towards the back of my car," he said.
"They punched me twice as I was sitting in the car. They then punched me three or four times in the face.
"They knew I wasn't being knocked out so they hit me with a brick."
Mateo said the attack was the "worst nightmare of my whole life". It took him by surprise and his first thoughts were to try to defend himself.
"The brick came flying towards my head and they thought they had knocked me out, but they hadn't, so I opened the door and kicked one of them in the side of the stomach.
"As my left foot went up to give him another kick in the chin, both of them pulled out screwdrivers and went behind my back and got me there."
His boss, who was nearby and ran to try to save him, described seeing a man gripping Mateo's shoulder and "doing a stabbing action".
The men then took off, leaving Mateo collapsed on the ground with multiple stab wounds.
He was taken to Middlemore Hospital where he had surgery later that morning.
"There were multiple stabs towards my side and back and a gash to my head from a brick," he said.
"I had a stomach operation. They cut me open because one of the screwdrivers went into my back and I think it burst the inside of my stomach open.
"It created pain in my stomach so they had to operate to relieve the pain. So there is a big cut on the front of my stomach."
Mateo said he is now feeling "quite good" but is shocked and scared.
"I am scared, very scared now. I am more fearful than I used to be.
"Now I am going to, as they say, 'look twice behind your back'."
Mateo said the men, in their early 20s, didn't say much and gave no reason for the attack.
"When I opened the door they said to get out of the car but they did not demand money or try to take my car.
"If they did want my car they could have just taken my $2 car and left me alone, that would have been worthwhile."
"Funnily enough they didn't disguise themselves at all. They were dressed casually in black jumpers and a pair of longs, as if they were casually going out and doing their normal thing."
Mateo's wife, Moeroa Jones, said she was glad her husband pulled through the horrific ordeal but hopes the men will be caught before they hurt anyone else.
"I am sad. I hope the police look for the two guys who did it or else something might happen to another person like what happened to him."
Mateo is expected to spend another week in hospital and is likely to be off work for a couple of months.
"It is going to take a little while for me to get back to my usual self again," he said.
The Herald's East Tamaki franchisee Farhad Umrigar said he will change the paper drop-off location to protect his staff.
"We are not going to that location anymore because we feel quite exposed to whoever walks into the gas station. It is also next to a pub and two little dark alleyways, so we have changed our location."
Umrigar said he has only owned the business for two months, but "nothing like this has happened before".
Police are investigating the attack.
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