An elderly man has been charged after allegedly mowing down two boys, aged 11 and 12, with his car after a harmless Saturday night prank.<\/p>\n
According to police, a group of children had knocked on the man\u2019s door in Coffs Harbour, NSW about 8:30pm on Saturday before fleeing on e-bikes.<\/p>\n
The group had been playing \u201cding dong ditch\u201d, a prank that involves ringing the doorbell of a home before running away.<\/p>\n
\u201cA short time later, the occupant of the home allegedly entered his vehicle and followed the e-bike riders in his car,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man allegedly mounted a gutter and continued following the boys along a nature strip before crashing into the back of an e-bike, throwing two boys from the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horrifying CCTV footage, obtained by 7NEWS, captured the horrifying moment the man sped towards the kids before hitting and dragging them for a number of metres.<\/p>\n
He is then seen quickly reversing as the kids flee the scene.<\/p>\n
One witness told the outlet that the boys were \u201cdragged for 15 to 20 metres\u201d before making their lucky escape.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe opened the door and we see two kids, they were panicking,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were cold, very cold and they were shivering as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to 7NEWS, one boy\u2019s father slammed the driver over the man\u2019s alleged actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s silly and it\u2019s immature but they are immature, they\u2019re children,\u201d he said,<\/p>\n
\u201cThat how you learn. You make silly mistakes but it doesn\u2019t warrant you losing your life over knocking on a door and running away.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the outlet, one of the boys\u2019 mothers branded the incident as \u201cshocking\u201d.<\/p>\n
The mother said the boys \u201cshouldn\u2019t have been knocking on someone\u2019s door\u201d but said that did not justify the man\u2019s alleged response, describing it as \u201cwildly disproportionate to what they\u2019d done\u201d.<\/p>\n
The boys were taken to hospital for treatment of minor injuries and have since been released.<\/p>\n
A short time later, the 78-year-old man was arrested at his Reid Drive home.<\/p>\n
He has been charged with predatory driving and knowingly drive vehicle in manner menaces others.<\/p>\n
He appeared before court on Sunday and was granted conditional bail to appear at court again on Wednesday, September 23.<\/p>\n
It comes just weeks after another man was charged for allegedly using his ute to chase down two 12-year-old boys riding e-bikes through a shopping mall, before mowing them down.<\/p>\n
Police alleged the NSW man, 57, seriously injured the boys when he chased and struck them in his Ford Ranger ute in Langtree Mall in Mildura, about 540km northwest of Melbourne, earlier this month.<\/p>\n
CCTV footage obtained by Nine News showed the ute allegedly hit the boys sending them flying through the air.<\/p>\n
The boys were seriously injured and one was flown to Royal Children\u2019s Hospital in Melbourne for medical treatment.<\/p>\n
The NSW man was charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, four counts of reckless conduct endangering life, driving in a dangerous manner and speed and intentionally causing injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly man has been charged after allegedly mowing down two boys, aged 11 and 12, with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79371,40488,114309,44015,37920,129067,107794,129076,47170,24596,71643,87257,110815,36507,129075,129084,129086,38094,129082,37330,127066,129080,56714,129069,74814,127076,60479,22,21,19412,4543,27014,21325,1109,13146,129092,129088,129087,13404,129091,129093,31690,41941,37462,129077,127075,42250,37490,129072,39,9705,39087,84406,3430,33821,127078,129073,260,129083,2653,12224,129071,48799,99875,127063,1047,127085,4913,127071,129095,16821,129070,41928,447,127067,129079,19816,127064,129089,42022,37167,37889,38464,127062,37471,129078,39912,129094,36531,42476,37640,37772,129081,81175,56538,129085,113522,129090,26114,129068,129074,74920,91662,29212,22441,40459],"class_list":["post-81617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-alleged-actions","tag-s-alleged-response","tag-s-door","tag-s-father","tag-s-hospital","tag-shocking-the-mother","tag-11-and-12","tag-15-to-20-metres","tag-47170","tag-7news","tag-830pm","tag-a-dangerous-manner","tag-a-door","tag-a-group","tag-a-gutter","tag-a-harmless-prank","tag-a-harmless-saturday-night-prank","tag-a-home","tag-a-nature-strip","tag-a-number","tag-a-prank","tag-a-shopping-mall","tag-a-short-time","tag-about-540km","tag-an-e-bike","tag-an-elderly-man","tag-another-man","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-boys","tag-children","tag-coffs-harbour","tag-conditional-bail","tag-court","tag-dangerous-driving","tag-ding-dong-ditch","tag-doorbell-prank","tag-down-police","tag-e-bikes","tag-e-bikes-the-group","tag-earlier-this-month-cctv-footage","tag-elderly-man","tag-four-counts","tag-his-car","tag-his-ford-ranger-ute","tag-his-reid-drive-home-he","tag-his-ute","tag-his-vehicle","tag-horrifying-cctv-footage","tag-hospital","tag-injury","tag-just-weeks","tag-langtree-mall","tag-life","tag-man","tag-manner-menaces","tag-medical-treatment-the-nsw-man","tag-melbourne","tag-metres-he","tag-mildura","tag-minor-injuries","tag-mothers","tag-nine-news","tag-one-boy","tag-others-he","tag-police","tag-predatory-driving","tag-reckless-conduct","tag-released-a","tag-royal-children","tag-saturday","tag-september-23-it","tag-serious-injury","tag-shocking-footage","tag-short-time","tag-silly-mistakes","tag-sunday","tag-the-78-year-old-man","tag-the-air-the-boys","tag-the-back","tag-the-bike","tag-the-boys","tag-the-door","tag-the-doorbell","tag-the-driver","tag-the-e-bike-riders","tag-the-home","tag-the-horrifying-moment","tag-the-incident","tag-the-kids","tag-the-man","tag-the-moment","tag-the-nsw-man","tag-the-occupant","tag-the-outlet","tag-the-scene-one-witness","tag-the-ute","tag-their-lucky-escape","tag-treatment","tag-tween-e-bikers","tag-two-12-year-old-boys","tag-two-boys","tag-two-kids","tag-vehicle","tag-wednesday","tag-your-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}