Those are the words of a 22-year-old Shepparton woman who was assaulted on Tuesday afternoon, June 10, while walking to her car after finishing work.
The woman and her 21-year-old female colleague were walking along Welsford St when a woman sitting on the ledge of the Shepparton War Memorial stood up and moved towards them.
“She started running towards us with her fists up, didn’t speak, ran straight into me and tried to punch me in the head,” she said.
“I put my leg up, blocked my face, swung my backpack and managed to get her off me.
“Then she turned to my colleague, grabbed her by the hair and the shoulder, threw her to the ground, which smashed the things that were in her backpack.
“The lady was on top of her, throwing punches.
“There was broken glass everywhere on the footpath.”
The woman said they “did not expect it at all” that another woman would attack them, and it “completely took us by surprise”.
“Anytime there’s a man walking towards me, I’m always just a little bit on guard, because you see all these stories,” she said.
“She was smaller than me, but it’s amazing how much damage she could do.
“We’re lucky that it was her and it wasn’t a bigger person — because who knows what would have happened then.”
The woman, who is “usually so cautious”, has been left feeling paranoid.
“I didn’t really sleep the first night, because I just kept picturing it,” she said.
“Every time I’d go to go to sleep, I’d picture her running at me, and picture my colleague being on the ground, and me trying to get her up.
“I walk the same route every single day.
“This was just a completely random attack that has now left us both so shaken up and traumatised.
“She looked completely normal, I didn’t think anything of it.”
How the assault ended was also “random”, interrupted by a man who “popped up out of nowhere”.
“He just walked up really calmly ... grabbed her by the arm, and they walked off like nothing had happened.”
She said she had no idea what the cause of the attack might’ve been.
“She didn't go for our bags,” she said.
“If she had have said ‘give me your bag’, I would have given it to her.
“But she didn't speak.”
She said it could happen to anyone, and people “need to be more careful and aware”.
“I feel like I’m a good example of a typical everyday person that’s working ... walking to their car at 5pm,” she said.
“Luckily ... I had the right instincts of shielding myself, but if I didn’t, that could have been a lot worse.”
When asked, police said no-one had been processed over the incident.
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