Lorry driver dad in in raid bid horror
A LORRY driver was hijacked at knifepoint and forced to flee in his underwear after being ambushed by a masked gang as he slept in a Midland layby.
Father-of-two Paul Syson was sleeping in the cab of his Devereux lorry parked at King’s Hill Industrial Estate, in Darlaston, when two men broke in at about 4am and forced him out.
The 31-year-old ex-squaddie said he feared for his life when the men dragged him outside in just his boxer shorts and to the back of his 40ft trailer.
“At that point I just thought ‘this guy is going to stab me in the dark’,” he said.
“He was holding a six or seven inch knife and swearing. I saw another guy with a mask just shouting ‘get out’ as well.
“I started to dress but the one with the knife started waving it at me.”
In a desperate bid to escape the gang, now reinforced by a third man driving a car, Mr Syson, from Billingham, near Middlesbrough, ran down the road in his bare feet but reached a dead end.
The attackers caught him and tried to bundle him into the boot of the car but he dashed off for a second time despite carrying an ankle injury which forced him to retire from the Royal Logistics Corps.
He said: “I thought ‘there’s no way in the world I’m getting in that boot’.
“I pushed one guy and was running again past the wagon and down the street.
“I could hear one of them shouting ‘grab him, stick him.’”
Mr Syson sprinted to a main road and lost his attackers before convincing an elderly resident at a nearby sheltered housing estate to let him in and call the police.
Mr Syson, married to Joanne, 32, has not slept or worked since the attack on Monday, September 15, because of the injuries sustained to his feet and now relies on a walking stick.
His trailer, which was carrying £100,000 worth of Nestle chocolate and water, was not raided by the gang.
The men are described as all aged between 30 and 40 and about 6ft tall.
* Anyone with information can contact DC Andy Smith on 0845 113 5000.
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