Trying to do the right thing left a Langford thrift store employee with deep scars and facing surgery after a vicious assault.

Josh MacLeod, 32, an employee at the St. Vincent de Paul Society store, was shoved through the store’s front window Saturday afternoon by a man trying to dump items.

Glass sliced MacLeod’s neck, pierced his back near his spine and narrowly missed his eye.

“I am really lucky I didn’t die. It was razor sharp glass,” MacLeod said in an interview Friday.

At the time of the attack on June 27, MacLeod was working with his younger brother Jesse along with two other employees and supervisor Grace White.

“I was ready to close up and I saw Josh was having a hard time with a man in the parking lot,” White said.

A 27-year-old Langford man in a van was attempting to drop off boxes and bags at the store at about 5 p.m., White said. The store stops taking donations at 4 p.m.

Both MacLeod and White asked the man not to leave his items and informed him he was illegally dumping garbage. The man ignored their warnings and continued to unload his items.

Once the man was back in his van, White memorized the license plate and went inside to write it on a piece of paper for Langford bylaw. MacLeod told the driver he could get a fine for dumping and the man charged him from across the parking lot.

“He shoved me several times,” MacLeod said. “The second time my glasses went flying and the third time I went into the window.”

“I heard I gigantic crash. I thought he drove his truck into the building,” White said. “I saw Josh and he was dripping with blood. The glass just missed his eye, jugular and spine.”

Jesse then grabbed the man who attacked his brother, took his car keys and restrained him until police arrived. Store employees and a customer rushed to MacLeod's side. MacLeod requires surgery on his arm and has cuts and puncture wounds over much of his body. Some of his fingers on his right hand are unresponsive.

“We applied pressure to where all the blood was spurting out,” White said. “It’s a miracle he wasn’t killed.”

MacLeod was in hospital overnight in the trauma and operating rooms. He plans to return to work when doctors give him the go-ahead. He is staying with his parents in Langford as the loss of using his right hand has left him unable to change his bandages and perform daily tasks such as open pill bottles.

After the incident, MacLeod told his mother “it never even occurred to me to push the man back.” MacLeod estimates his attacker had more than 50 pounds on him.

The Langford man was arrested for aggravated assault and will make his first court appearance in Western Communities Court House, Sept. 17. Charges haven’t been formally sworn, so he can’t be named.

While St. Vincent de Paul appreciates donations, White said, it cannot accept items after hours. People are constantly dumping junk and causes problems for the store, she said.

“People need to know they can’t dump stuff off. It’s a thrift store not your local dump,” MacLeod said.

Store manger Lorraine Morison said the assault has not caused the store to change its policies on accepting donations.

“I think it was a really freakish incident,” MacLeod said. “I think he was having a bad day and that was his last straw. For someone to get out of their vehicle and charge across the parking lot, there has to be quite a lot of aggression there.”

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