Terrifying close call for four-time AFL premiership winning Hawthorn star Jordan Lewis after teens smash into his luxury vehicle in a stolen car
Four-time AFL premiership winner Jordan Lewis had a close call on Friday when an allegedly stolen vehicle smashed into his luxury vehicle in Melbourne while he was having lunch with friends.
Lewis was selected by Hawthorn with the 7th pick in the 2004 national draft, he was a key midfielder in their premiership victories in 2008, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
In 2017, Lewis transferred to Melbourne, where he played until his retirement in 2019. He has worked as a media personality ever since.
The incident began when two teenagers, driving a stolen white Subaru, allegedly threatened two drivers with an axe in separate carjacking attempts.
The pair first stopped behind a BMW, where one of them got out and threatened the driver, who managed to escape.
Moments later, they allegedly tried to pull a man from his black Mercedes outside the Rising Sun Hotel but failed.
Jordan Lewis comes out from his lunch to assess the damage to his vehicle after the incident
Teenagers had allegedly stolen a vehicle and crashed it in Richmond before leaving on foot
The teenagers then sped down Church St, lost control, and smashed into a parked Holden Barina, causing their car to flip and crash into Lewis’ parked vehicle.
They fled the scene, but members of the public restrained them until police arrived. Both teenagers have since been arrested and charged by police.
Lewis said he was lucky that the incident occured while he was having lunch and not returning to his vehicle.
‘I was out for lunch and I came back and saw a car flipped up on the side of the road next to my car, which has obviously damaged my car,’ he said.
‘That’s about it, I was sort of lucky that I wasn’t there.
‘The axle looked like it had been snapped, the front axle … how your day takes a turn.’
The female driver of the Holden was not injured.
Melbourne Divisional Response Unit have charged two teenagers following the alleged attempted carjackings.
The four-time premier with the Hawthorn Hawks was lucky to still be inside when the crash happened
Police arrested two teenagers after locals chased the alleged offenders down following the crash
An 18-year-old Ringwood man was arrested and taken to hospital under police guard.
A 15-year-old Traralgon boy was arrested and taken into custody.
One of the men who chased down the offenders spoke to News Corp about their pursuit.
‘My brother and I were here on Church St. We have a tile store here and were just having a chat out the front and we heard a loud bang out on the street,’ he told 3AW’s Jacqui Felgate.
‘We walked out and saw the white SUV flipped on its side. From there we thought it was a pretty bad accident and we saw two gentlemen jump out of the driver’s side and start running down Church St.
‘My brother and I looked at each other and we knew exactly what was going on … and he said ‘let’s get them’.
‘We made it all the way to KFC on Swan St and we managed to corner them in the drive-through area.’
The man said they ran after the teenagers for more than a kilometre and more locals joined them as they ran.
‘Because we are a local business as we were running I was seeing people I knew and I was calling ‘give us a hand’ and they jumped in, as well,’ he said.
‘We knew the more of us there was the safer it was going to be to make the arrest.
‘We just got them to sit down and the cops came pretty quickly.’
