A good samaritan has stolen an e-scooter after the rider fell off in Stokes Valley.
Video / Supplied
A would-be Good Samaritan has drawn the ire of the public after abandoning an unconscious man on the road and riding away on the e-scooter the victim had just crashed.
The victim had to be hospitalised for a head wound after knocking himself out while riding the e-scooter in the Lower Hutt suburb of Stokes Valley.
The victim was riding fast along the footpath on George St when he swerved to avoid approaching cars and lost control of the e-scooter, witness Huck Haeata said.
“He wobbled and he just went down like a ton of bricks, faceplanted . . . he didn’t move. I thought ‘Oh he’s knocked himself the f*** out.’”
Members of the public and police help a man who knocked himself out while riding an e-scooter in Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.
Haeata, who was rushing around trying to call 111 and get properly dressed before she went out to help, saw two men approach the victim’s prone form to check on him.
When she looked again, she noticed “that mother f***er’s just scootered off”.
“That didn’t look right to me.”
The other man, who is understood not to have been connected to the alleged thief, stayed to care for the victim.
Haeata also noticed some cars slow down to look at the victim before driving away again without helping, which shocked her.
By the time Haeata made it out to where the man was, members of the public - which she referred to as “first responders” - had gathered around to help.
The man regained consciousness but seemed to be drunk, concussed, or both, and was verbally abusive and aggressive with helpers.
He refused to get in someone’s car out of the sun, but one woman brought out an umbrella to help.
Haeata said there was “so much blood” and the man’s face looked severely injured.
Police eventually showed up and convinced the man to allow them to drive him to hospital.
A police spokesman confirmed officers were called to the intersection of George and Evans Sts about 5.40pm on Wednesday to reports a man had fallen off his e-scooter.
A man rides on an e-scooter after another man fell from the scooter knocking himself unconscious. Photo / Supplied
“A person has reportedly stolen the scooter after the man fell off and then left the scene.
“Police transported the injured person to hospital to be treated for a wound to his head.”
It is not known whether the man is still in hospital.
It is also not known whether the man’s scooter has been returned, though Haeata said she had received an unverified message from a friend of the alleged thief explaining the scooter had since been handed back.
Haeata posted video of the aftermath to social media and was “disappointed” to see people threatening her and labelling her a “narc” for sharing footage of the alleged theft.
“As a wahine I take doing the right thing seriously,” she said.
The "Good Samaritan" appeared to help the injured man before riding off on his scooter. Photo / Supplied
The “narc” attitude was “anti-tikanga” in her view, and sadly normalised in “hood” culture.
“I always say ‘I’m not the hood, I will speak up.’”
“This ‘narc’ rhetoric, all it is is enabler-tanga, that’s what I call it.”
On a “positive” note, Haeata was full of praise for the members of the public who rushed to the man’s aid, and thanked them for helping out when others did not.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
