When Elizabeth Szakal saw a dog in the cab of a truck with the rear windows only slightly open during this week’s heat wave, she felt she had to do something. What she didn’t expect was a violent confrontation with the dog owner. Szakal says she was at the Salmon Arm Canadian Tire store Tuesday when the incident happened. “I had the store try and page him. When he finally came out, I told him it was way too hot to have a dog in a car. He ignored me, put his shopping in the truck then closed it and casually went to shop (elsewhere),” Szakal says. Szakal was told it would be a while before the SPCA could respond, and they recommended she call police, which she did. “When he came out, I told him cops were on way, and he tried to drive over the median to leave before authorities or the SPCA arrived. I stood behind the truck so he couldn’t leave without having to talk to SPCA. He was backing up into me, so I was punching on the back of his truck.” Szakal says, in hindsight, blocking the truck perhaps wasn’t a good idea, as she could have been seriously injured. While she was recording video on her cellphone, the man exited the Dodge pickup and tried to grab the phone. “He tried to rip the phone out of my hand,” Szakal says. She alleges the man grabbed her right hand. “He had control of my right arm, so I started punching. I threw him to the ground and I sat on him,” says Szakal, who is trained in judo. “I was screaming for some help because he was the one who came at me.” In the video, the man can be seen approaching Szakal, telling her to go away while uttering profanities. The man then returns to his truck, but Szakal refuses to move, so the man once again exits the truck, swears at Szakal again and appears to grab her camera. The 28 year old said she fought back in self defence and was left with several bruises from the altercation. When RCMP arrived, Szakal said she was told the altercation was consensual and no charges would be filed. On Thursday, Szakal went to the Salmon Arm RCMP detachment with her father to file charges. “I did not expect it to get that bad, and I will never try and block somebody from leaving ever again because I could have gotten hurt and I realize that now,” she said. Castanet has reached out to the Salmon Arm RCMP for comment.
