VICTORIA -- A 60-year-old nurse says she believes she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when a woman tried to violently steal her car on Wednesday night.
Nancy Verhoog, a perinatal nurse at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, says she had just gotten off of a 12-hour shift and had climbed into her car when a woman opened her driver-side door.
The woman then demanded that Verhoog get out of her car, but the nurse refused. The woman then started beating her with a two-foot-long section of cedar fencing.
Verhoog says that random assault lasted about five minutes before coworkers heard her screams for help and subdued the woman.
The incident left the 60-year-old with multiple cuts and bruises to her face, arms and legs. Verhoog says she also has trouble walking.
“I think I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she told CTV News on Friday. “It wouldn’t matter to her if I was a staff member or not. She wanted to get out of the hospital and I was the means to do it.”
RCMP say the woman, 18, had been taken to the hospital by a family member just before the attack occurred because relatives were concerned that she was acting erratically.
Before she was admitted, she ran from the building. Police later arrested the teen for assault causing bodily harm. She has since been admitted to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Despite her injuries, Verhoog says she sympathizes with the teen.
“I feel for her, I don’t have any anger towards her,” she said. “I just hope she gets the help she needs.”
