Photo: Elizabeth Szakal
When Elizabeth Szakal saw a dog in the cab of a truck with the back windows only slightly open during this week’s heat wave, she felt she had to do something.
What he didn’t expect was a violent confrontation with the dog’s owner.
Szakal says he was at the Salmon Arm Canadian Tire store on Tuesday when the incident happened.
“I had the store try to find him. When he finally came out, I told him it was too hot to have a dog in the car. He ignored me, put his groceries in the truck, then closed it and went to shop (elsewhere) casually,” Szakal says.
Szakal was told it would be some time before the SPCA could respond and was advised to call the police, which she did.
“When he got out I told him the cops were on their way and he tried to go through the median to leave before the authorities or the SPCA arrived. I stayed behind the truck so he couldn’t leave without having to speak to the SPCA . He was backing up, so I was hitting the back of his truck.”
Szakal says, in hindsight, blocking the truck may not have been a good idea, as she could have been seriously injured.
While recording the video on his cell phone, the man got out of the Dodge pickup truck and tried to grab the phone.
“He tried to rip the phone out of my hand,” Szakal says.
She claims the man grabbed her right hand.
“I had control of my right arm, so I started hitting. I knocked him to the ground and sat on him,” says Szakal, who is trained in judo. “I screamed for help because he was the one who came to me”.
In the video, the man can be seen approaching Szakal, telling him to leave while uttering profanities.
The man then gets back into his truck, but Szakal refuses to move, so the man gets out of the truck again, insults Szakal again, and appears to grab his camera.
The 28-year-old said she fought back in self-defense and was left with several bruises from the altercation.
When RCMP arrived, Szakal said they told him the altercation was consensual and no charges will be laid.
On Thursday, Szakal went to the Salmon Arm RCMP detachment with his father to press charges.
“I didn’t expect it to go this bad, and I’m never going to try to stop someone from leaving ever again because it could have hurt me and I realize it now,” she said.
Castanet has contacted the Salmon Arm RCMP for comment.