THESE are the defiant words of stab victim Eric Chapman, who fended off a robber who tried to hijack a car in his getaway from a jewellers shop.
As reported, Grimsby robbers Christopher London, 25, and Damion Clark, 30, were locked up for a total of nearly 14 years after an armed robbery at Eastgate Jewellers, Louth, on June 24.
Passers-by disabled their getaway motorcycle as the pair, armed with hammers and wearing crash helmets, tried to flee at about 1.20pm after the daylight robbery.
Clark ran into Queen Street car park and tried to haul Grimsby businessman Eric Chapman, 62, from the driver's seat of his red Citroen C3.
As the ex-serviceman resisted, Clark pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the head, narrowly missing his right eye.
Sentencing the pair at Lincoln Crown Court on Tuesday the judge told Clark: "You opened the door and tried to drag him off, but he was made of stern stuff and did not budge."
Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph, Mr Chapman said: "I'm a Yorkshireman, I am bound to be."
He added: "That car is my pride and joy. I have worked hard to get it and I wasn't going to let him have it."
He told how he was driving out of the car park when he saw the man in a crash helmet running towards his car, pursued by a number of other people.
Mr Chapman, who owns Mopp'nBucket cleaning business serving Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Louth said: "I did not know what he had done earlier. All of a sudden he wrenched the door open and tried to drag me out. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the box because I still had my seatbelt on, so I wasn't going anywhere no matter how hard he tried.
"Then this knife came out and he struck me at the side of my head. It was millimetres from my eye so the possibilities are more frightening than the reality. It could have been so much worse. But I have served in war zones, so it hasn't bothered me. I would do it again."
Within moments, police arrived and arrested Clark, who was charged and later convicted of unlawful wounding.
Mr Chapman said he took the rest of the day off on the advice of his wife Christine, but went back to work at 4am the next day.
He said: "I am fitter now than I have ever been in my life."
The business owner said he was disappointed he was not eligible for compensation because his injuries were classed as minor.
He told how police took him to the neighbouring doctor's surgery in Queen Street where he was treated for the cut to his eyebrow. There is still a lump there.
Mr Chapman said: "It was lucky I was wearing my glasses because the blade could have got my eye."
