A man who's run a bakery on Selkirk Avenue for over 30 years is for the first time feeling unsafe in his own neighbourhood.
"I'm really scared to come down here now," said Erhard Meier.
It's been almost three weeks since the 73-year-old was attacked in the back alley behind his business.
"I felt so safe here, I never even thought something like this would happen to me," said Meier.
Around midnight on November 5, he parked his van behind his building like he does most nights.
Meier says out of nowhere he felt a blow to his left ear.
"I don't know what they wanted, I haven't got a clue," said Meier.
He raised his arm to protect his head, and for his trouble ended up with a broken arm.
"He had a baseball bat. He slugged me one here, and broke my arm here," said Meier pointing to his arm that now rests in a sling.
Meier also has a hairline fracture to his left knee. He received several stitches to his ear and now has hearing damage.
"I still can't get it out of my head, lots of times I lie in bed and think, oh my god, if the neighbours wouldn't have heard me, I wouldn't be here today, that's for sure," said Meier.
That neighbour was Doris Balkwill. She says she saw three young people in hoodies in the back lane. She said they kept checking their cell phones for the time and recounts she knew they were planning something.
"I could see them standing behind the garage," recounts Balkwill.
She picked up the phone to call police, and just then realized what the suspects were up to.
"I saw the van pull up and they just bee-lined out of the driveway and I said they're going for the baker. My husband and sons went barreling out there but they'd already got their shots into the old man," recalls Balkwill.
The whole episode has left Meier shaken, and questioning his own safety.
"I built this business up and I just don't want to walk away from something like this you know," said Meier, who may never feel safe in his own shop again.
With report from CTV's Shaneen Robinson
