A 63-year-old who chased an intruder off his property was savaged by a police dog which attacked the wrong man.
"It was a dirty big black German shepherd that came screaming towards me, with 12-foot of lead hanging off it," Brett Abraham said from Auckland City Hospital yesterday.
"And then, to add insult to injury, this dumb cop came over and I told him what an idiot he was and he just took the dog and left me leaning against the vehicle on the side of the street with blood pouring everywhere."
Police last night said an Independent Police Conduct Authority inquiry was under way.
Mr Abraham said he dragged himself up the driveway of his Epsom home to his wife and daughter, who phoned 111.
Staff told him to apply pressure to the wounds while he waited for the ambulance.
Yesterday, he was recovering in hospital after two hours of surgery to open up and clean out the wounds - one on his upper left thigh, the other his lower leg.
Doctors said he would be back in theatre on Monday - his South Island holiday that was due to start yesterday cancelled.
"At 7 o'clock [Thursday night], my wife and I had all our airfares booked, motels booked for a nine-day holiday down to Dunedin and all around Southland," he said.
Inspector Mark Hall, of the Auckland dog section, disputed that his officer failed to help the injured man.
The dog handler went to Mr Abraham and helped him to the house, before heading back to his van for a medical kit, he said.
Mr Hall said the officer then returned to the house, helped press the wounds, and waited for the ambulance to arrive.
Police had caught the intruder.
"[Police are] obviously sympathetic to the plight of the victim who [had] been injured through no fault of his own ...
It's a terrible event," Insp Hall said.
He said the officer involved was an experienced dog handler with a mature dog, which was under control before and during the incident.
- By Rachel Tiffen, The New Zealand Herald
