A Melbourne father has allegedly been stabbed by a prospective buyer during a test drive in the city’s northeast, triggering a new warning about the dangers of online market places.
Police have arrested a 19-year-old man over the Facebook Marketplace meet-up in Greensborough on Sunday afternoon, where Chris Cook had hoped to sell his Holden Commodore ute.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Melbourne father in ends up in hospital following horror marketplace interaction.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
Chris, 58, wrestled with the alleged attacker before driving home and being rushed to hospital with internal bleeding and a punctured lung. He was allegedly stabbed three times – once in the chest and twice in the stomach.
“Chris drove down the street, they went around the block, then Chris said ‘do you want to take over, have a drive?’ He goes ‘yep’,” Cook’s wife Christine said.
That is when things allegedly turned violent.
“Halfway up the street he brought out a knife and told Chris to get out of the car,” Christine said.
“Chris goes ‘no, why?’ and and he goes ‘I’m taking it’.”
Chris managed to get the alleged offender out of the vehicle but not before he was injured.
He then drove 200m home, screaming for his wife to call an ambulance.
Christine said there was “blood everywhere”.
“He got back and just collapsed on the step,” Christine said.
Her husband remains in hospital on Monday evening where he is being treated for his injuries.
It is understood the attacker fled through a nearby park and onto Clovemont Wy.
Bleeding from cuts to his hand, he approached a nearby home, asking the resident for help.
Instead, it was police who arrived and arrested a 19-year-old.
The alleged attacker had reached out to Chris on Facebook Marketplace about buying his Commodore.
Christine said the incident must serve as a warning to others.
“I just want to put it out there that it is scary with Marketplace and I want people to know – be careful,” Christine said. “It’s just bad.”