Police dog attacks wrong man

A 63-year-old man was attacked by a police dog which got the wrong man, after he chased an intruder at his property.

Brett Abraham was recovering at Auckland City Hospital last night after two hours of surgery to open up and clean out the bite wounds -- one on his upper left thigh, the other his lower leg.

"They have to cut dog bites open even bigger to wash them out properly," he said. "They say they don't normally stitch them up because they are likely to go all septic," he told the Weekend Herald.

The attack happened after Mr Abraham went out to investigate when a security light at his Woodhall Rd home in Epsom went on at 2.48am yesterday.

"I remember looking at the alarm clock ... I got up and went outside but there was no sign of anyone, which I thought was strange, but then I saw a bike leaning on the fence against the property," he said.

Mr Abraham believed the intruder had followed a local girl home and she had phoned police. The man then hid his bike down Mr Abraham's driveway.

But he went back to bed, after finding nobody nearby.

Then the light came back on again, and his wife Jean spotted a man running away. Mr Abraham chased after him, screaming at him to stop, and was attacked by the dog.

Inspector Mark Hall, of the Auckland dog section, said a dog handler saw the intruder cycling towards him and told him to stop.

"He failed to do so and the dog was released and commanded to apprehend the offender," he said. "Unfortunately, the offender swerved away from the dog and the dog has continued on and bitten the victim." An Independent Police Conduct Authority inquiry is under way.

Mr Abraham has been told he will have more surgery on Monday. He had to cancel flights and motel bookings for a nine-day South Island holiday which was due to begin yesterday.

Mr Abraham was angry about the incident and critical of the police response. "He [the police officer] didn't shine a torch on it [his leg], he didn't know if my femoral artery had been bitten through, he didn't have a clue." Mr Abraham said he had to drag himself up the driveway to his wife and daughter, who phoned 111. St John staff told him to apply pressure to the wounds until the ambulance arrived, he said.

But Inspector Hall denied the dog handler failed to help Mr Abraham.

He said the officer went straight over to Mr Abraham and helped him to the house, before heading back to his van for a medical kit.